A self-described maverick corporate venturing investor, Peter Cowley takes a unique approach to investing on behalf of Martlet, a corporate angel fund sponsored by Marshall, a UK-based engineering group.
Cowley said: “At Global Corporate Venturing’s conference in May I stood up and said part of what we do is altruistic, and got sharp intakes of breath.”
The group is the dream of Robert Marshall, of Marshall’s founding family, who came to know Cowley through his personal angel investing. He said: “We [Martlet] usually invest £50,000 to £100,000 alongside angels, where we are commonly the biggest involved. One of our metrics is to match or better the internal rate of return [a measure of profit] within the group.”
As the group is largely designed simply to support UK start-ups it is less integrated with its parent corporate than other venture units. Cowley said: “One of the rules when we were set up is we did not want senior management to get diverted. The one exception is e-Go Aeroplanes, which is more synergistic. People involved from Marshall are learning stuff which will be used in their normal day jobs.”
Cowley has lived in Cambridge for the past eight years, and was originally an engineering and computing science graduate of the university. He is a board member of Cambridge Angels, has run the Computing Laboratory Ring mentoring scheme for eight years and chairs the IdeaSpace
supporter group.
He has 17 angel investments in sectors including biotech, medtech, aerospace, printing and instrumentation. He is a non-executive director or board observer with six companies.
Over the past 12 years, he has been treasurer and chairman of several charities in the advice, healthcare and education sectors. He also works in property development and construction.