AT least 30 new 'Business Angels' are being sought in a recruiting drive to reinforce Finance Wales' successful 'xenos' network of private investors.

Over the past three years, the network has arranged 38 deals, which together have injected more than £5.2 million of direct and "levered" funding into new or small enterprises across Wales.

The service, which currently has 72 business angel investors with combined assets of some £25 million on its books, is now seeking more investors from around Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom to extend the range and flexibility of the investment deals it can put together.

Essentially, the network is a match-making service that seeks to identify potential business angels - wealthy private investors who are usually successful business people in their own right and who are looking for opportunities to invest directly in new ventures. The investors are then introduced regularly to small firms which need equity investment and which match the investors' areas of interest and expertise.

The network is one of the services delivered by Finance Wales, an arm of the Welsh Development Agency created to assist the birth and growth of more businesses. Network manager Ray Hurcombe said: "The key to the service is to find a match between entrepreneurs who need support and investors who understand what the entrepreneurs are trying to achieve.

"The more investors we enlist the better the chances of finding a suitable match for some of the innovative and enterprising new venture which will benefit not only from equity investment but also from the investor's businesses experience."

The attraction for new recruits to the network is the opportunity to pick winners from among the xenos data-base of small and fledgling businesses - and to make high returns when the new ventures mature over a three to five year period.

A series of presentations are planned over the next few months to likely new investors and the network is working to seek new recruits from further afield.

"The track record established in Wales over the last three years will, we believe, persuade a number of potential investors to come on board because we've demonstrated that there are excellent new businesses with high growth potential right across Wales."

Last year, the British Venture Capital Association reported Wales had become one of the UK's business angel "hot spots" .

According the an Association survey of private investment activity, Wales had joined the South East and North East of England and Scotland in recording a significantly higher share of business angel activity than the regional share of Vat registered businesses.

*PICTURED: Ray Hurcombe (right) has been helping at Exodus Electronics at Monmouth. With him are founder James Hunter (left) and executive chairman Peter Morgan.