Robot harvest pickers and a digital identity platform grabbed investor attention at the latest Dorset Business Angels (DBA) quarterly event.

Held at the Bournemouth Carlton Hotel, the audience at the Dragons’ Den-style pitch first enjoyed 40 minutes of networking and conversation before getting down to business.

Five companies were seeking investment using a hybrid of in-person and online pitches.

Each had a strict ten minutes to make a compelling case for investment, followed by ten minutes of tough questioning.

Three of the businesses were unsuccessful in their pitch on the evening, failing to gain any current investor interest.

The two successful pitches were:

• A company specialising in robotics technology, initially for agricultural settings, with a vision to ‘protect humans from poor pay and working conditions, increase productivity and reduce labour risk’.

Globally there is a critical labour shortage for farmers, resulting in unharvested crops being left to rot. Without picking capacity, farmers are reducing production, resulting in significant financial losses.

The solution offered by the pitching business is a range of robotic vehicles which utilise robotic arms with AI (artificial intelligence) and a state-of-the-art navigation system.

It can be safely employed in agriculture, alongside human pickers, to harvest a variety of crops.

The company boasts a wealth of robotics experience in its team and says that its innovative solutions are extremely cost effective, with a system driving a three-year payback, in asparagus harvesting alone.

The market size was identified, initially targeting hand-picked crops in areas with increasing human labour risk, such as grape picking – there is a £5 billion picking cost of non-wine grapes globally – flower picking (£0.5bn) and asparagus picking (£117m).

The business was seeking £500,000, with a pre-money valuation of £2,500,000, to enable it to become revenue generating within 12 months.

Six expressions of interest were made.

• A company which offers a digital identity platform.

One of the industry’s largest problems is still the manual gathering, updating, and sharing of corporate information for enterprise due diligence.

The pitching business provides a system that allows corporates to create a digital identity by facilitating the permission/authorised sharing of due diligence credentials that are verified and risk assessed by regulated institutions.

The business explained how existing compliance processes are lengthy, cumbersome and repetitive, needing to be repeated for every client, every year.

It also looked at the issues when due diligence is broken.

The expert team behind the digital identity platform was introduced, all with a track record of building RegTech solutions.

The power behind the platform was explained as well as how the business is responding to strong market demand with potential clients such as the Crown Commercial Service, PWC, Chubb, Linklaters and Accenture.

A paid pilot is ongoing with law firm Webber Wentzel.

Raising £500,000 to make the platform ‘the industry agnostic and ready to scale across Europe’ four expressions of interest were received.

The unsuccessful pitches were:

• A meal delivery service for businesses
• A digital platform bringing together elements of fan fiction, gaming, multimedia streaming & classic storytelling
• A platform combining the functions of several apps, dedicated to group bookings, aiming to simplify organising nights out with friends

While no expressions were received for these pitches on the evening they may get interest subsequently from the wider DBA membership and subscribers.

DBA also welcomed Rob Jones, Senior Investment Director from sponsor Investec Wealth and Investment, who gave a brief but informed presentation on ‘Responses to increased market volatility’.

Don McQueen, DBA Chairman, pictured left, said: “It was great to welcome a group of such experienced and high calibre investors.

“There was lots of interesting and insightful questioning, with investors drawing on their individual sector experience to probe further.”

DBA is sponsored by Saffery Champness chartered accountants, Ellis Jones Solicitors and Investec Wealth and Investment.

• dorsetbusinessangels.co.uk

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Gallery – pictures by Kate Shaw, KTPR

Declan O’Toole and Ashley Faull.

Chris Spackman and Max Wright.

Trevor Maund, TRM Consulting, and Tony Williams, Wessex Ventures.

Steve Royffe and Paul Shaw, e2z Consultants.

Lindsay Douglas, Don McQueen and Ashley Faull.

Rob Jones, Investec, and Owen Griffiths.

Declan O”Toole and Peter Eales.

Kate Shaw, KTPR, and Debbie Frith, The Passionate PA (Poole).