business Archives - Page 2 of 8 - 4 Oceans Capital Ltd

Keen Venture Partners launches €90m fund to invest in UK tech

By David Yates on November 17, 2016 / Blog Post, business, Investment, PE/VC, telecom / Leave a comment

Keen Venture Partners, a new VC firm operating out of London and Amsterdam, has announced the launch of its €90m inaugural tech investment fund. Called Keen Venture Partners Fund LP, the fund will look to invest in between €5m to €10m per early stage tech company. In Europe, the fund will focus on innovation hubs across the UK, Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. Additionally, it will also consider US-based tech companies looking to expand into Europe. Founded by Ben Verwaayen, former CEO of both BT and Alcatel-Lucent; Alexander Ribbink, former COO of TomTom;

Barclays extends high growth tech fund for UK scale-ups to £200m

By David Yates on November 17, 2016 / Blog Post, business, EIS, Investment, Loan / Leave a comment

A year since the launch of its first venture debt fund for UK technology firms, Barclays has announced it is extending the fund to £200 million. Barclays has seen huge take up from businesses and since launching in May last year has provided £100million in earlier stage financing support to nearly 40 companies. It is the first of the big four banks to offer high growth businesses and their founders debt funding solutions at this early stage. The fund is designed to provide access to debt finance; commonly available in

Speed is Key To Startup Success, but how?

By David Yates on September 14, 2016 / Blog Post, business, Investment, PE/VC, SEIS / Leave a comment

As an advisor to young and growing companies, there’s one major mistake I see inexperienced entrepreneurs make time and time again – moving too slowly. But the need for speed in launching a startup has little to do with being the first to market, and everything to do with having the necessary resources to actually GET your product to market. Often new entrepreneurs spend so much time trying to get everything perfect that they run out of money. To launch a startup, you need to be agile and you need to be

VC investment in German FinTech ‘outpaced UK by 80%’ in Q2 2016

By David Yates on September 13, 2016 / Blog Post, business, fintech, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

UK-based FinTech firms received 80% less VC funding than their German counterparts throughout Q2 2016. According to CB Insights and KMPG’s “The Pulse of FinTech” Q2 2016 report, venture capital-backed FinTech firms in Germany saw more than an 80% increase in funding than those in the UK – with notable deals going to startups including N26 and Finanzcheck. Given global market uncertainties associated with political events such as the UK’s Brexit vote and the upcoming US presidential election, the report notes that it was not surprising that venture capital investors

BREXIT, we’re out, so are high-growth businesses at risk?

By David Yates on July 19, 2016 / Blog Post, business, Investment / Leave a comment

How will Brexit impact startups and scaleups? Almost 75% of high-growth businesses in the UK were hoping for a remain vote with tech startups overwhelmingly opposed to Brexit – but the vote didn’t quite turn out the way many expected it to, especially the politicians! As we go through this period of uncertainty the real impact of Brexit on SME and Growth businesses is guesswork at this point. Here at 4 Oceans the real question we are asking is about startups and scaleups and whether they may lose access to finance and

Maven leads MBO of Indigo Telecom

By David Yates on July 14, 2016 / Blog Post, business, Investment, M&A, PE/VC, telecom / Leave a comment

Maven has completed the MBO of Indigo Telecom Group, investing alongside fellow private equity manager YFM Equity Partners, to acquire the business from parent TTG-Global Limited. The business will benefit from a £12m funding package to accelerate growth, including additional funds to support a buy and build strategy. This transaction continues a strong period of recent investment for Maven, having already completed private equity investments in 2016 across the technology, support services, healthcare and specialist manufacturing sectors for client funds. Recent investments include: backing the MBI of document management specialist Prime Document; supporting new

5 ways the Government is investing in SMEs

By David Yates on January 6, 2016 / Blog Post, business, Crowdfunding, Investment, Loan, SEIS / Leave a comment

The government is often talking about how it wants to help small business: the good news is there are some very real and practical ways it is offering its support to SMEs. The demands of being a small business can be enormous. You will often find yourself involved with all aspects of your venture – to the most minute detail. This can be exciting whilst at the same time very demanding. No one said it would be easy to build up a business from scratch. After all you have so

Is 2016 the year you start your own business? – 5 Things you should do now!

By David Yates on January 4, 2016 / Blog Post, business / Leave a comment

Its a new year and many budding entrepreneurs will finally take the plunge and start their own business but getting a business off the ground is one of the hardest things to do, especially with no experience: so can getting an experienced advisor on board make the difference? Whether it’s been a long held dream to run a coffee shop, become a consultant, or see yourself as a smartphone app designer, making it happen is the next step. Entrepreneurs often have a passion for business and are focused on devoting time and energy

5 Common Entrepreneur Mistakes

By David Yates on October 9, 2014 / Blog Post, business, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

The road to starting and building your own business is a minefield with possible mistakes at every step, believe me I know. One wrong move, one wrong partner or contract, and everything could come crashing down around you. Since most entrepreneurs tend to be “all in” when it comes to starting a business, if you are considering taking the first step perhaps you should pay attention to the following list of the five most common mistakes that entrepreneurs make and how to avoid them. If you fall into any of these traps, it could

Top 5 Reasons why Venture Capital firms just don’t invest!

By David Yates on October 8, 2014 / Blog Post, business, Crowdfunding, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

Venture Capital firms see a constant stream of start-ups telling them that they have developed a unique product that is going to disrupt their chosen market and deliver huge returns. To combat this, they will generally have developed a set of investment criteria that nine times out of ten will govern whether they decide to invest or not. To put it into context, a typical VC might review 2,000 or 3,000 plus ‘opportunities’ per annum and only invest in 10 or 15, while active angel investors might see 200-300 and invest in 4-5. The odds

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