ONE of the country's most successful young businessmen is offering budding entrepreneurs who want to copy his achievements a free consultation service.

Mikael Anderson is the 22-year-old CEO of Kovati, the London-based private equity and venture capital firm who is believed to be worth an estimated £6.2million.

He started his first business when he was 17 years old, selling website templates. Since then he has founded seven more companies - including IT consultancy firm NDG Web Solutions and online digital animation and software specialists Extrol Bisco.

Kovati's investments in SME's (small-to-medium-sized enterprises) typically range from £10,000 to £3million.

Some of Kovatis latest investments include E-Drobe.com, Ninety-1 (an alternative to Gumtree), The Restaurant Gift Card, and new entertainment device TouchDiva.

Anderson says he prefers to invest in 'people not ideas' and would always consider the quality of the current management team before making any investments: "I believe in investing in people rather than ideas. It's the people behind ideas that really interest me. I believe good people stir on creativity, which in turn make good ideas." he says.

Now Kovati are offering aspiring entrepreneurs a free of charge telephone consultation service to see how viable their business ideas are and whether or not there is an investment opportunity.

The new service, Taurus, named after Anderson's star-sign, allows entrepreneurs to chat to one of Kovati's highly-experienced Investment Managers where they'll be able to discuss, tweak, and improve their business ideas and strategic plans.

Entrepreneurs can book a free session by visiting the Kovati website, www.kovati.com, and completing a simple online form, shortly after which an Investment Manager will contact the entrepreneur.

"We are starting to see an increase in the number of people trying to become entrepreneurs and that can only be a good thing.

We are one of the first, if not the first, Venture Capital firm to offer a completely free of charge service with no strings attached. We're not looking for anything in return. If we can help someone do something good then everyone will benefit, a giver's gift.

Taurus will give us an opportunity to help some great entrepreneurs on their road to succeed." said Mikael Anderson.

Mikael is becoming well-known in the entrepreneurial community, regularly being asked to attend pitching events as a judge, investor or speaker. He recently appeared alongside Adriadne Capital founder, and one of the BBC's online Dragons, Julie Meyer, as a judge at the Next Women event.