Investment Archives - Page 5 of 5 - 4 Oceans Capital Ltd

Soros logs on to ultra-fast broadband

By David Yates on June 9, 2013 / Blog Post, Investment, telecom / Leave a comment

A tiny London broadband provider with just 49 employees has secured heavyweight backing from George Soros in a plan to roll out ultra-fast broadband internet connections to half a million British homes. Hyperoptic, founded in 2011 by Boris Ivanovic, a Serbian entrepreneur, claims to provide internet speeds of a gigabyte a second — 83 times as fast as the national average. The privately owned business has completed a £50 million fundraising with the bulk of the money coming from Quantum Strategic Partners, a vehicle that invests on behalf of Mr

Bank of England says lending falls again sharply but will improve later this year

By David Yates on June 4, 2013 / Blog Post, business, Investment / Leave a comment

Banks have taken over £16.5bn in cheap “Funding for Lending” cash but actual lending falls another £300m last month and still the Bank of England says things will improve as rates kick in. Do we really believe that? Lending by banks and building societies fell by £300m in the first three months of this year, despite access to cheaper funds through the Government’s Funding for Lending scheme. Since its launch last August Banks have drawn down £16.5bn of cheap funds from the Funding for Lending scheme, but total net

M&A fever epidemic hits UK Telecoms sector

By David Yates on May 20, 2013 / Blog Post, business, Investment / Leave a comment

There seems to be no end to the M&A fever in the Telecoms reseller marketplace in the UK and it seems to have reached epidemic proportions with new “deals” being announced almost daily. But what is driving all of this activity? The simple answer is that the major Banks have woken up to a sector which historically has generated very strong cash flows and have started to lend again. As reported in Comms Dealer recently, Chess Telecom has strengthened its role in the acquisition marketplace with a further £10 million facility

Banks accused of sabotaging deals via Crowdfunding sites

By David Yates on May 20, 2013 / Blog Post, business, Crowdfunding, Investment / Leave a comment

Banks have been accused of deliberately making it difficult for small businesses to borrow via crowdfunding sites by delaying paperwork and charging high fees. Crowdfunding sites like Funding Circle, which has arranged more than £100million of lending to firms, said that it is dealing with several cases of firms forced to wait months to receive funding because of hold-ups by high street banks. The problems arise because most loans arranged through crowdfunding sites require a charge over the firms assets in the event that the firm defaults on the loan.

TMT start-ups set to benefit from £440m investment boost

By David Yates on May 20, 2013 / Blog Post, business, Investment, SEIS / Leave a comment

TMT start-ups are set to benefit from a £440million investment in the Government agency for innovation and growth – the Technology Strategy Board. Every pound invested by the board returns £7 to the economy by helping TMT start-ups to develop and bring ideas to market, according to research carried out for the agency. Digital Shoreditch, which starts today in East London’s Tech City, was founded 3 years ago with the backing of the board. The annual technology festival, the brainchild of Kam Star who also founded games firm Playgen,

Crowdcube values itself at £7.1 million after ‘world record’ three-day fundraising

By David Yates on May 13, 2013 / Blog Post, business, Crowdfunding, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

Crowdcube has raised £1.5 million through what it describers as a new world record for funds raised via an equity crowdfunding platform. Founded in February 2011, Crowdcube allows businesses to showcase themselves and secure growth capital from a large group of investors. Crowdcube says it first set out to raise £250,000 but, having raised that within the first five hours, made it live for a further three days to raise the rest of the amount. In total, 259 investors contributed to the round. When Crowdcube last tried to raise capital through

EIS and SEIS failing on awareness and eligibility fronts

By David Yates on May 8, 2013 / Blog Post, business, Investment / Leave a comment

The Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme are failing to register on the radar of UK entrepreneurs, despite having been around since 1994 and 2012 respectively. Entrepreneurs are not up to scratch with details, and also don’t know the basics. A quarter of British entrepreneurs have not heard of the Enterprise Investment Scheme EIS, new figures show. A recent study found that 25 per cent of business builders have not heard of the funding incentive, and 35 per cent are not aware of the EIS tax relief available to

Six new deals for London Business Angels as the network uses EIS and SEIS schemes

By David Yates on April 23, 2013 / Blog Post, business, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

A sum of £1 million has been injected into six SMEs by the London Business Angels (LBA) alongside other co-investments of around £4.5 million. The six companies backed by the private angels network includes trunk mains monitoring company Syrinx, which is backed by LBA as part of a £2 million round, and Liverpool-based nasogastric feeding tube business Westco Medical, which has secured a £146,000 Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) commitment. LBA is part of Angel Capital Group and is also a founding member of the British Business Angels Association. A portion,

More than £1m invested in start-ups through crowdfunding platform Seedrs in just 9 months

By David Yates on April 23, 2013 / Blog Post, business, Investment / Leave a comment

More than £1million has been invested in start-ups through online equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs in just nine months. Seedrs was set up last year as a platform for entrepreneurs to raise funds from small investors in return for equity in their business. As bank funding to smaller firms dries up – figures show it fell £4.8billion in the first quarter of this year – demand for alternative sources of finance has soared, with £700,000 invested via Seedrs in the past three months alone. So far 21 start-ups have received up

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