COVID-19 – An Opportunity for Us All?

Nick Lyth tells us how he is using Green Angel Syndicate to fight against climate change and global warming.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Nick Lyth: We are all well, thank you. No-one has suffered from the illness. But my wife’s (holiday accommodation) business is close to collapse as a result of the lockdown measures.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Green Angel Syndicate.

Nick Lyth: I founded Green Angel Syndicate as an experiment in 2013 to see if it could help to stimulate innovation and enterprise in the fight against climate change. The experiment has worked, and GAS now has more than 220 members, over £7 million invested, and 25 companies in its portfolio.

How does Green Angel Syndicate innovate? 

Nick Lyth: Green Angel Syndicate is the only angel investment syndicate in the UK specializing in the fight against climate change and global warming.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Nick Lyth: GAS has grown during the pandemic. The need for the resource use areas in which we invest – energy, food, water – means that economic activity in these areas is growing, not declining. So our business is growing, new angel investors are joining, and we are making more and bigger investments.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Nick Lyth: No, our business is thriving. If there is a lesson, it is that we should be concentrating on what we need collectively and globally to fight the dangers of climate change and help to arrest and reverse global warming whilst keeping the world provided with clean energy, food, and water – the resources we need to stay alive. We are welcoming more and more members who understand and share this priority.

How do you project yourself and Green Angel Syndicate in the future?

Nick Lyth: GAS is projecting to grow in the future. Climate change is not going away soon, nor is our business purpose and activity.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Nick Lyth: We are the only one of our kind in the UK.

Your final thoughts?

Nick Lyth: COVID-19 is intimately linked to the problems of climate change, but the problems of climate change are much worse and are going to be much longer-lasting. Our world is only starting to realize this now, but we must all get much more serious about it if we are to defeat the threat. This need to change represents a huge investment opportunity, as every sector of the economy needs to transition away from a hydro-carbon basis to a non-hydro-carbon basis, and the changes and innovations required will need huge levels of investment, job and business creation, economic expansion, and all that comes with it. 

Your website? 

www.greenangelsyndicate.com