The island’s lieutenant governor has praised the ’excellent’ work done by Bridge Angel Network after it announced it was closing down after three years.

Bridge is a not-for-profit business accelerator and investment network that has helped to promote entrepreneurship in the island since it was formed in May, 2016.

But in a shock announcement last Friday, Bridge, a fully solvent company employing two full-time employees, confirmed it would cease trading at the end of next month (June) for a number of reasons.

(The term ’angel investor’ is said to have originated in America. Angel investors usually give support to start-up businesses. In the last 50 years the number of angel investors has greatly increased.)

Sir Richard Gozney, who had been a keen supporter of Bridge, said: ’Bridge has done an excellent job of bringing together entrepreneurs and potential investors through many networking events, including an event at Government House.

’They have worked hard to promote the Isle of Man and to help the Manx economy grow.’

Simon Nicholas, chairman of Bridge and a partner at KPMG, one of the founding sponsors of Bridge, said: ’Three years ago, Bridge identified a gap between ’’having an idea’’ and ’’making it a reality’’ and we are privileged to have supported an array of emerging entrepreneurial talent, providing start and scale-up businesses with the crucial support they needed, to help them thrive and reach their full potential.

’We couldn’t have done this without the valued input from Katie Nicholson, manager of Bridge, who has been with us since day one, the support from Isle of Man Government and our corporate sponsors, all of whom are passionate about the part they play in enabling entrepreneurship and contributing to the island’s economy.

’We’re incredibly proud of what we have achieved in a short space of time, however we also recognise that three years on, the environment has changed.

’Firstly, there have been changes to the Enterprise Development Scheme (EDS) and changes within the Department for Enterprise, seeing the management of EDS, internalised into DfE.

’Secondly, our future direction and strategy was to include initiatives similar to those seen in the UK, such as crowd funding and angel investor syndicates.

’Having discussed our position with the relevant advisors, this was deemed to be ’’regulated activity’’, which presented a conflict of interest for our corporate sponsors.

’These combined factors, put Bridge in an untenable situation and the unanimous decision has been made by the board, to bring things to a close.’

However Mr Nicholas hinted that there are hopes that Bridge will ’live on in one form or another’ because it ’clearly addresses a market need.’

In a statement Bridge said that during the last three years it has delivered 37 events, met with more than 220 entrepreneurs and developed a new angel network for the island which includes more than 95 registered angel investors and hundreds of start-up and scale-up businesses.

Bridge is also said to have seen more than £2 million invested in local start and scale-up businesses.

It also provided more than 450 hours of free business support and mentorship though its corporate sponsors and specialist consultants.