Nottingham health and fitness technology provider secures £500,000 funding package

Nottingham-based Boditrax Technologies Ltd (“Boditrax”) has received a £500,000 loan from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (“MEIF”) East & South East Midlands Debt Finance fund, backed by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), managed by Maven Capital Partners (“Maven”).

Boditrax’s technology monitors cellular health and composition to quickly deliver accurate data on up to 45 different metrics, from body fat and muscle to cellular integrity and metabolic efficiency. Boditrax devices are now used by nearly eight million people worldwide to manage their health and fitness journey.

Boditrax is planning to use the funding to accelerate its product development and focus on its next generation of software and hardware offerings, exploring new market sectors and creating a subscription model. The funding will support two further product launches.

The company works with leading medical, fitness, academic and corporate organisations, including the NHS, HM Government, Rolls-Royce, Cadbury’s, Kellogg’s, Virgin Active, David Lloyd, Fitness First, Sky TV and Airbus. This is alongside elite sports teams, from F1 to the Premier League.   

Established in 2011, Boditrax is backed by an experienced management team led by Executive Chairman Oliver Wheatcroft and Managing Director Nick Stillman. The team have been instrumental in driving Boditrax’s concept, design, implementation and growth, with the company now having the world’s largest body composition database.

Nicholas Stillman, Managing Director at Boditrax Technologies comments:

“2020 was challenging for many firms, but it also presented an opportunity to pause and consider plans for our own software and hardware platforms. The funding has provided the certainty to commit to what will be a ‘V2’ of the product and in many ways, the company.

“We have now invested heavily in research and development, our own Linux operating system and new infrastructure. Maven was incredibly supportive throughout. Richard, Jonathan and the team really took the time to understand our business plans, as well as the commercial opportunities and challenges we had in front of us. I really could not recommend Maven highly enough.”

Richard Brighty, Investment Manager for Maven adds:

“Boditrax is a highly innovative technology business which has demonstrated strong resilience throughout the pandemic despite the lockdown’s impact on its key market of commercial gyms. It has been a pleasure working with Nick and Ollie to provide this funding to support its continued growth through new product development.”

Lewis Stringer, Senior Manager at the British Business Bank, said: 

“It’s great to see this latest MEIF deal helping another business to continue delivering innovative services and expand as a result. The Fund is committed to supporting Midlands’ business growth and helping firms, like Boditrax, to further establish the region as hub for technological innovation.”

Sajeeda Rose, Chief Executive of D2N2 LEP said: 

“Our region has a thriving technology industry, and I’m pleased to see continued investment by the Midlands Engine Investment Fund into innovative local businesses, such as Boditrax, to support their growth and development aspirations.”

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) was managed by the British Business Bank on behalf of, and with the financial backing of, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The scheme ended on 31 March and has been replaced by the Recovery Loan Scheme.

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NOTES TO EDITOR

MEDIA CONTACTS

Maven Capital Partners
Pooja Pankhania	0121 231 3016	[email protected]
Sapience Communications (PR to Maven)
Richard Morgan Evans	020 3195 3240	[email protected]

About Maven Capital Partners UK LLP   

Maven Capital Partners UK LLP (Maven) is a lower-mid cap private equity house focused on the provision of growth capital and mezzanine finance to SMEs across the UK. It is one of the most active private equity fund managers in the country, managing over £600 million of assets for a variety of client funds, including Venture Capital Trusts, UK regional debt and equity funds, Maven Regional Buyout Fund and Maven Investor Partners – a syndicate of institutional, family office and experienced investors.

Headquartered in Glasgow, and with ten other offices throughout the UK, Maven has nationwide coverage of the market for SME finance and is introduced to around 400 deals per year through over 40 regionally based investment executives. With 100 staff and partners, Maven executes a range of private company transactions, offers hands-on proactive portfolio management to investee companies and provides a fully integrated back-office support function to client and third-party fund managers. Maven manages £194 million regional fund mandates for investment in SMEs.

Since MEIF Maven Debt Finance launched, Maven has developed regional focused strategies, tailoring its approach to tackle the specific barriers local SMEs face in each Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) area. In the West Midlands and East & South East Midlands, Investment Specialists, who each bring a wealth of knowledge of the region, have been appointed and the team is working closely with local chambers of commerce, advisers and business support organisations to assist local companies to identify and access the right funding to help their businesses grow.

For more information about Maven visit: www.mavencp.com and funds.mavencp.com/meif

About the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF)

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, will invest in Debt Finance, Small Business Loans, Proof-of-Concept and Equity Finance funds, ranging from £25,000 to £2m, specifically to help small and medium sized businesses secure the funding they need for growth and development.

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund is operated by British Business Financial Services Limited, wholly owned by British Business Bank, the UK’s national economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity.

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund is supported by the European Regional Development Fund, the European Investment Bank, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and British Business Finance Limited, a British Business Bank group company.

The MEIF covers the following LEP areas: Black Country, Coventry & Warwickshire, Greater Birmingham & Solihull, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, The Marches, and Worcestershire in the West Midlands; and Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham & Nottinghamshire (D2N2) Greater Lincolnshire, Leicester and Leicestershire, and South-East Midlands in the East and South-East Midlands.

The project is receiving up to £78,550,000 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The programme will continue to spend to the end of 2023.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.

The European Investment Bank is providing £122,500,000 to support the Midlands Engine Investment Fund. This follows backing for the Northern Powerhouse in 2017 and backing for the newly launched North East Fund. For further information visit www.eib.org

The funds in which Midlands Engine Investment Fund invests are open to businesses with material operations in or planning to open material operations in the West Midlands and East & South-East Midlands.

The British Business Bank has published the Business Finance Guide (in partnership with the ICAEW, and a further 21 business and finance organisations). The guide, which impartially sets out the range finance options available to businesses and provides links to support available at a regional level, is available at https://thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank’s core programmes support nearly £8bn^[1] of finance to almost 94,800 smaller businesses^[2]. Since March 2020, the British Business Bank has also launched four new Coronavirus business loan schemes, delivering almost £73bn of finance to around 1.6m businesses.

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success.

In light of the coronavirus pandemic and EU Exit, the Finance Hub has expanded and it now targets a wider business audience. It continues to provide information and support for scale-up, high growth and potential high growth businesses, but now provides increased content, information and products for businesses in survival and recovery mindsets. The Finance Hub has been redesigned and repositioned to reflect this, during this period of economic uncertainty.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at www.british-business-bank.co.uk.

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^[1] Figures as at end of June 2020

^[2] Figures as at 28 January 2021