Fhunded strengthens angel investment advisory team with two senior appointments

Fhunded Angels, Lancashire County Council’s (LCC) pioneering equity investment initiative for Lancashire startup businesses, has announced the appointment of two new senior consultants.

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

Hazel is an experienced music-tech founder, board member, and private investor. With deep experience across the global music and technology sectors, she is the former CEO and co-founder of Musiio (later acquired by SoundCloud), and has worked with music industry giants such as Shazam and Pandora.

Hazel – who is currently lead investor at the Leeds Angels syndicate in West Yorkshire– will use her commercial expertise to help Fhunded Angels increase the flow of early-stage finance specifically within Lancashire’s creative and entertainment sectors.

Working alongside Hazel will be James Butcher.  With a track record spanning technical innovation, commercial leadership, and value creation, across multiple industry sectors, James is an in-demand non-executive director and company chair.

Already one of Fhunded Angel’s most active investors, James’ advisory role will now see him helping Lancashire startups seeking finance to get more investment ready.

This will include advising them on how to engage with potential investors, how to develop more compelling pitch decks, and how to navigate the early-stage business growth landscape more widely.

LCC’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’ve now got over 50 private investors in the Fhunded Angels network, and have already facilitated over £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 at Lancashire County Council, 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.