Consultants join Fhunded Angels support team

Startups across Lancashire will be able to access expert advice from two new senior consultants at Lancashire County Council's Fhunded Angels.

Entrepreneurs and founders Hazel Savage and James Butcher, who are also both active angel investors, are to join the programme in advisory roles.

Fhunded Angels is Lancashire County Council’s equity investment initiative for startup businesses.

Hazel is an experienced music tech founder, board member and private investor. With experience across the global music and technology sectors, she is the former chief executive and cofounder of Musiio, which was later acquired by SoundCloud, and has worked with music industry giants such as Shazam and Pandora.

And James, whose career spans technical innovation, commercial leadership, and value creation across multiple industry sectors, is a non executive director and company chair.

Lancashire County Council’s Rory Southworth, who manages the Fhunded Angels programme, said: “Hazel and James coming on board to support Fhunded Angels demonstrates just how vibrant Lancashire’s early stage investment ecosystem currently is.

“We now have more than 50 private investors in the Fhunded Angels network, and have already facilitated more than £2m of pre-seed investment into Lancashire businesses since launching last March.

“However, to maintain a strong deal pipeline, we need to tap into the experience of people like Hazel and James. Their expertise will enable us to increase not only the volume of opportunities we’re putting in front of our investors, but also the quality and diversity.” 

Councillor Brian Moore, cabinet member for economic development and growth, said: “Fhunded Angels, which is the UK’s largest angel investor network managed by a local authority, was set up to give ambitious Lancashire entrepreneurs their first foot on the investment ladder.

“These high calibre appointments are a testament not only to how successful the initiative has been since being launched by LCC last year, but also how it is gearing up to help even more Lancashire startups get ready for growth in the future.”

Recent businesses who have secured backing from Fhunded Angels include the EV charging business TOGL, the Gen Z careers app UrFuture, and the pioneering climate tech firm UAP.