BUSINESS angel experts have joined forces to help small firms attract more funding from equity investors.

Beer & Partners, a national business angel network with a Kent base in Langton Green, Tunbridge Wells, and Blue Sky Business Planning, a Brighton-based accounting firm, have launched a new service aimed at injecting cash into growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

A recent study of SMEs by Bibby Financial Services underlined the problems they face in raising funds to expand their businesses.

When asked the best source of funding for growing businesses, 35 per cent of owners and managers cited venture capital and 23 per cent business angels.

In practice, however, only 12 per cent and two per cent, respectively, have managed to work with these financial partners.

Beer & Partners' nine offices, including the Kent outlet run by Martin Atkinson, handle around 3,000 investment proposals a year seeking sums from £75,000 to £5m.

The new service has been designed to counter the claims by some investors that they often lack adequate information about companies on which to base investment decisions.

It works mainly online, generating a document designed to answer the questions that investors have, before formatting the responses into a business plan.

The service also features a menu-driven spreadsheet for financial projections relating to trading, profit and loss, cash flow and balance sheet.

After completion, the document is submitted to Beer & Partners for fast-tracking to its national investor database of more than 1,000 individuals and institutions.

It offers guidance, help and model answers along the way to help build the plan quickly; on-site visits by Blue Sky experts where necessary; evaluation of key factors, and feedback.

David Beer, chairman of Beer & Partners, said: "Investors constantly grumble that plans are not up to scratch and that they can't find the information they need quickly.

"This service is one of the few that addresses those problems directly and, as such, significantly improves the likelihood of success in finding appropriate funding."

The service costs between £350 and £950, plus Vat, depending on the level of hands-on assistance required.