The Co Angel Investment service, www.coangelinvestment.co.uk the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) supported service linking syndicates of business angels to innovative high growth businesses, has supported Manchester based digital services and games studio start up Desk Dragons Interactive with seed investment.

Desk Dragons http://www.deskdragons.com will use the investment to take the innovation and imagination behind the billion dollar games industry and apply it to a range of new markets, from retail to healthcare, allowing customers to ‘hold’ a table before they buy it or try out the latest sports car right from the showroom.  .

The funding will be used to set up Desk Dragon’s first dedicated studio in Springfield’s, Manchester, to complete development of their first product and to create high quality and innovative content for current virtual reality and future mixed reality platforms. Utilising the funding and the new studio, Desk Dragons is aiming to be self-sustaining by 2017, with a projected company value of £5m by the end of year three.

Desk Dragons also recently won a grant through UKTI to travel over to San Francisco to attend the UKIE (UK Interactive Entertainment) GDC festival in April. The team are also currently involved with Entrepreneurial Spark programme based at NatWest’s offices in Hardman Boulevard. Run alongside partners NatWest, KPMG and EMC, Entrepreneurial Spark is the world’s largest free business accelerator for start-up and scale up businesses and has provided free support, mentoring, networking and office accommodation for over 650 businesses in hubs or Hatcheries across the UK.

Gemma Kirby, Entrepreneur Development Manager at NatWest, said: “The Desk Dragons team has created a dynamic product that will play an important part in the games industry for the future.  Ben and the team have the mindset to ensure the product’s longevity for  a long and sustainable future.”

Darren Gowling, Senior Investment Director from Co said: “Desk Dragon’s is a genuinely exciting digital start up that has its sights firmly set on bringing holographic and augmented reality into the corporate environment and beyond. Their experience in the gaming industry is second to none and we are already exploring how best to marry that global network with the extensive b2b and b2c networks of our Co investors.

“This is a perfect example of corporate meets creative where both the business and investors have a huge amount to bring to the table to build and grow a truly game-changing company.”

Boasting a team that has worked on some of the biggest names in the games industry, from Call of Duty to Assassin’s Creed, Ben Mills from Dragon’s Desk said: “The opportunities offered by holographic technology such as Microsoft HoloLens already allow us to create revolutionary games but, thanks to the investment from Co, we are now able to think a lot bigger and to use our experience to break into other b2b markets. We will be able to develop unique IP in both the games industry and provide B2B services, something that companies really need to wake up to in today’s climate of personalised and highly interactive marketing.”

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority have taken a new and innovative approach to helping exciting young businesses find the early stage equity they need to build and grow. Co, also part of the Manchester Growth Company, supports businesses to access equity investment from Syndicates of investors, the British Business Bank Angel Co Fund and VCs from across the region and the wider UK.

For more information on raising investment for your business or investing in businesses with Co Angel Investment please contact 0161 237 4047 or email info@coangel.co.uk