A BURWELL based entrepreneur was told that his business is likely to be worth in excess of £100 million within two years as he picked up a national award for innovation. Andy Cummins started his digital marketing company About U Ltd, which is based in Bay

A BURWELL based entrepreneur was told that his business is likely to be worth in excess of £100 million within two years as he picked up a national award for innovation.

Andy Cummins started his digital marketing company About U Ltd, which is based in Bayfield Drive, Burwell, in late 2005 to market a sales lead generation programme for UK businesses called Text2Mail. It combines text, email and digital brochure technologies and allows business to automatically receive and respond to business enquiries 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

To win the award Mr Cummins had to present his business in front of a live audience of around 300 people to a panel of business angels at 'The Midas Touch,' an event which replicates the BBC Two show Dragon's Den and took place at London's ExCel Centre.

From 100 applicants, he was selected for the final short list of 20 and after his appearance the panel voted About U 'Best Business Start-up Innovation 2006.'

Mr Cummins said: "It was terrifying appearing before the panel in front of a live audience, especially because the people before me were given such a hard time and didn't get any offers. But I knew our product is unique, already taking the market by storm and the panel clearly saw the potential."

Four of the five angels on the panel offered to back the business with an injection of £100,000 each for a 10 per cent stake. The fifth angel advised Mr Cummins not take to the deal because the business is likely to be worth in excess of £100 million within two years which would net the angels £10 million, making the investment too cheap. Flooded with similar offers after winning the award, Mr Cummins is now considering his options.

About U's Text2Mail programme also enables the consumer to request product or service details by text and includes instant distribution of clients marketing materials to the prospect's PC.

INFO: for further information on About U's Text2Mail service text About Digital and your e mail address to 62299 or visit the website www.aboutu.co.uk