AN ENTREPRENEUR has landed a multi-million-pound package of venture capital funding to jump start an energy tariff comparison website for businesses.

Former maths lecturer Conway Standing is the managing director of Derby-based Utility Exchange, which he expects to establish as a market leader.

US venture capital concern Beringea is behind the deal, hoping its investment will spark high growth.

Utility Exchange's website compares electricity, gas and telecoms tariffs, helping businesses cut overheads.

The company, based at The Wyvern Business Park, has 27 staff but anticipates employing 50 in Derby and a further 10 at a satellite office in the south-west by the end of next year.

The company has brought in a number of big-hitters to its board, including Stephen Lusty, former European operations director of Google; Andrew Dewhirst, founder of Tesco Personal Finance, and Gareth Morris, former managing director of jewellery giant Links of London and finance director at clothing brands Mulberry and Hackett.

Mr Standing said: "It has not been an easy process but we have secured a substantial seven-figure sum to develop the business and it is growing rapidly.

"There are thousands of energy comparison websites for the domestic market because all you need is a piece of software that costs about £160 – after that, the only difference is the marketing.

"The business market is more complicated because the calculations involved are so much more difficult," said Mr Standing.

There are approximately 37,500 different energy tariffs for businesses – and they change constantly as prices on the futures markets fluctuate.

According to the company, 240,000 businesses have their energy contracts come up for renewal every month yet only about 40,000 bother to make the effort to change.

"The cost of energy is becoming a larger and larger proportion of overheads and firms can save up to 70% on what they're paying and we do so honestly, ethically and transparently," said Mr Standing.

"There are small brokers and one-man bands but no one is doing what we're doing and it has really taken off."

The idea to set up the business came to its founder when he was acting as a consultant to a nursing home business that risked hitting the financial rocks. Looking at its costs, he found that changing the company's energy and gas supplier saved a mammoth £500,000.

Mr Standing started his career teaching mathematics in Leicester before becoming a systems analyst but it was through nursing homes that he first struck entrepreneurial gold, founding Hughes Ashton Healthcare, which he sold to BUPA in 1993.

He was also the founder of Leapfrog Day Nurseries, which grew to include 88 premises.

His biggest challenge running Utility Exchange is getting businesses to understand that there are savings to be made.

"The apathy from businesses concerning their energy bills is unbelievable at the moment but this will change as more look to cut costs in a fast-moving market," said Mr Standing.