PE/VC Archives - Page 2 of 4 - 4 Oceans Capital Ltd

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

Why investors keep saying no, even when everything seems so right!

By David Yates on January 10, 2016 / Blog Post, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

Even great entrepreneurs with great businesses frequently find themselves facing rejection from investors who don’t offer a clear or credible explanation, why? This is a serious condition which can be fatal to your startup. If you’re sure you have checked all the boxes; team, product, market, financials, traction, problem, competitive advantage etc. etc. then it’s likely that your pitch failed for one or more of the following reasons: You just presented badly. Anxiety often results in the real entrepreneur being left outside the meeting room while an unconfident, uncharismatic and unpersuasive robot

How to keep your investors happy – Six top tips to communicate effectively.

By David Yates on January 7, 2016 / Blog Post, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

Keeping investors happy is key for the running of any business and meeting with current and prospective investors will end up being a big part of an Entrepreneurs life, but what are the key tips to communicate effectively? Clearly everyone’s different and managing numerous investors with differing personalities, expectations and requirements is a big job and needs to be taken seriously. An Entrepreneur has to keep investors involved so they feel a part of the business and more likely to support it with future plans. Here are some tips based on my personal experience both

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

The Hottest Startup Sectors

By David Yates on September 5, 2014 / Blog Post, business, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

There’s a cyclical nature to fundraising. Certain sectors rise quickly and become competitive while others decline. So how do you know what is hot and what is not? If you work in the industry and are constantly gauging the state of the market like me you ask yourself a couple of key questions. First, which sectors are in vogue now in Seed investing and Series A investing? Second, is there a delay between the sectors attracting seed capital and Series A capital? In other words, do seed investors see

Crowdcube fuses venture capital and crowdfunding for latest investment round

By David Yates on July 17, 2014 / Blog Post, Crowdfunding, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

Crowdcube recently closed a £3.8 million Series B round and topped it up to £5M by raising £1.2M in just 16 minutes using its own crowdfunding platform, a new world record! Balderton Capital, which has previously backed fellow alternative finance platforms Zopa and Wonga, is leading the transaction and has installed one of their partners as a member of the Crowdcube board. The £5 million that raised has been earmarked for investment in UK and overseas expansion. Crowdcube has doubled its team to 50 and opened new satellite offices in London and Scotland alongside its headquarters

Balderton Capital puts faith in European entrepreneurs by raising new Series A fund

By David Yates on April 18, 2014 / Blog Post, business, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

London-based venture capital firm Balderton Capital has raised a new $305 million fund aimed at investing in European TMT Series A deals. The backer of companies including LOVEFiLM, Wonga and MySQL has closed its fifth European fund and now has $2.2 billion of funds under management. According to the firm, the new fund is hoping to take advantage of ‘growing opportunities’ in the European technology sector and secured a contribution from the European Investment Fund. Set up in 2000 under its previous name Benchmark Capital Europe, Balderton Capital rebranded in 2007 and claims

The £150,000 SEIS threshold is not enough!

By David Yates on March 5, 2014 / Blog Post, business, Investment, PE/VC, SEIS / Leave a comment

With the Tax Year end looming now is the time for both start-ups and investors to take advantage of tax-efficient Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes (SEIS). But is £150,000 per start-up really enough to succeed in today’s economy? Since its introduction in 2012, SEIS has helped some 1,250 businesses. However, with just £150,000 per start-up available to small and early-stage businesses, many of these start-ups will face fundamental problems due to the lack of follow-on capital. Whilst SEIS is helping to pave the way for business growth, more is required if

Are you the next $1 Billion Startup?

By David Yates on January 7, 2014 / Blog Post, business, Investment, PE/VC / Leave a comment

Do you think that you have what it takes to be the next $1 Billion Startup? What are the actual Odds of your business being the next Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter? The odds that your tech startup will become worth $1 billion or more are incomprehensibly small, according to recent research done seed-stage investment fund, Cowboy Ventures. They’re so tiny that the VC industry has coined a new term for $1 billion startups, “Unicorns!” and it seems unlikely that you’re getting into the Unicorn Club any time soon. So far

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