Why Balderton Capital’s new $305m European Fund is a great sign for London’s startups April 1, 2014 Balderton Capital – the tech VC fund whose investment record includes breakout success from the likes of Lovefilm and Betfair – announced a new European $305m early stage investment fund this morning. That the fund is specifically targeting the early Series A round of investment is a great sign for London’s fledgling tech community, which [...]
Information startup DueDil raises $17m March 3, 2014 Business data platform DueDil has announced today that it’s raised a further $17m (£10.2m), taking the London-based startup's total investment to $22m in the past 10 months. Big data DueDil gives individuals and businesses free-to-access, up-to-date information on companies and directors. Led by Oak Investment Partners, DueDil’s latest funding round was also supported by London [...]
Blinkx founder joins Balderton Capital to lead startup funding January 20, 2014 BLINKX founder Suranga Chandratillake is set to return to London to take up his new role as a partner at the venture investor firm Balderton Capital. Chandratillake will retain his role as strategy chief at Blinkx after he relocates from California to the UK for his new role, in which he will focus on investing [...]
It’s time to break the Whitehall silo and put startup discipline into government December 3, 2013 THE CURSE of Norman Lamont makes politicians wary of mentioning the “green shoots” of recovery. But when the data show growth of 0.4 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent in the first three quarters of 2013, it’s clear. The UK is off life support. Sure, the recovery is heavily consumption-led, with exports [...]
Government helped get my business going – now it’s boosting startups again November 19, 2013 TWENTY odd years ago, I stepped into a print shop on Albert Square in Manchester. It was an industrious place – full of whirring machines and the smell of printing ink. I knew then and there that I wanted to open my own printing business. But at 21 years of age, the bank manager wasn’t [...]
Startup springboks who let the idea come to them November 17, 2013 Annabel Palmer meets Leon Blitz and Brad Fried, lifelong pals behind investment firm Grovepoint MOST entrepreneurs start with an idea – be it reinventing the wheel or simply finding a way to do something better than anyone else out there. The hard part is then taking the first steps – shunning job security for months [...]
Four ideas from Silicon Valley on creating scale from Britain’s startups November 10, 2013 UK STARTUPS don’t lack enthusiasm (over 440,000 have been founded in 2013 so far), but Britain lags behind the US in the number that reach scale. This is an economically important issue. A report by the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK programme found that just 1 per cent of all firms – high-growth small [...]
Why Labour is the natural party of small business and entrepreneurs February 5, 2013 “You’re all the same” is the complaint often levelled at politicians. But this cannot be said of small businesses, even if the increasing use of “SME” as a shorthand for small and medium-sized enterprises can give the opposite impression. One of my resolutions for 2013 is to stop using the term. It doesn’t do justice [...]