Starting your own business carries with it the potential for great satisfaction, but also the risk of frustrated dreams and depleted resources. Unfortunately, having a clever idea and turning it into a product is just half the battle. Gaining the funding for your venture can often be the hardest part. In the UK, money for start-ups is tight; Bank of England figures indicate that lending to businesses has been shrinking consistently since the end of 2008.

In response to this, there have been interesting new developments in the past few years in the investment sphere for entrepreneurs – not least the phenomenon of crowdfunding, for example, which has confidently progressed from a digital quirk into a powerful finance model in its own right. But although the way that businesses and projects raise capital has begun to dramatically change over recent years, the dual challenge of internationalising funding partnerships and of forging meaningful, personal connections between entrepreneurs and investors around the world is still a complex task. With this in mind, Host of Ideas launched this year with the aim of becoming the go-to platform for early stage investment on both sides of the Atlantic. With offices in London, Chicago and Chennai, Host of Ideas acts as a matchmaking service, allowing startups to post their business proposals to the site and linking these with accredited funders looking for opportunities in their specialist area.

Through the Host of Ideas platform, UK and European-based start-ups who often find it difficult to secure funding, will now have access to a large pool of early stage investors in the States. Keen to source the best entrepreneurial talent in the UK, the company will be launching a twitter competition next month and is busy making plans for a London-based event which will host the twitter winners. Also on its busy agenda is an Autumn series of competitions consisting of a range of niche categories for startups of all shapes and sizes seeking funding.

Check out www.hostofideas.com and follow @hostofideas on twitter to get involved in the action!