I recently attended How to navigate the London startup scene with Escape the City. Huge thanks to Adele at Escape the City and Rob Fitz for a great event.
Rob knowledgeably navigated the world of Venture Capital, Angel Investors, Crowdfunding and Accelerators with an engaging style, demonstrating his experiences of the London startup scene in the process. Refreshingly candid about his own failures, Rob provided useful advice and excellent insights, from his experiences of the startup scenes both in London and Silicon Valley. The full video recording of the event can be viewed below.
I have provided hyperlinks, Twitter and blog links and other snippets of information for a range of the companies Rob referenced below. Note all information below is my own, so excuse any errors.
Venture Capital
- Index - focus on technology and life sciences, Eur.250,000 to Eur.50m, read their official blog and about their approach.
- Accel - look at their London investments, recently launched their 'Big Data Fund'. formed Accel KKR in 2000 for PE funding. Articles on Tech Crunch here. Early Facebook investors.
- Balderton - manages around $1.9bn in venture capital, can invest from $100,000 to $20m. Typical initial investment of $5m, normally invest $15m over the lifecycle of a company. typically high-growth tech.
- Dought Hanson & Co - technology ventures on 3 areas: mobile, internet software and cleantech. View their technology portfolio.
- DFJ Esprit - invest from pre-revenue stage upwards, typically in technology sectors. View their portfolio. What they look for in a business plan.
- Silicon Valley Bank - also provider accelerator services for startups
Angel Investment
The government Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) is designed to stimulate entrepreneurship by untying huge amount of angel capital from first time investors and high net worth individuals (HNWI).
Tech Angel Investors:
- Index Seed - particularly active in London, just put E350m into a seed fund
- Passion Capital - team include first exec and chairman of last.fm
- #1Seed - relatively new but active, involved from £50k to £300k
Lists of Angels:
- Bangers & Mash - run by azmat, a directory of angel investors
- Seedsummit - European angel list, created by seedcamp founders
- AngelList - also allows blogging/posting news from your business
Crowdfunding
These platforms are typically very specific and many (e.g. Kickstarter in the US) are geared to funding products rather than companies.
- Crowdcube - launched in early 2011, raise investments up to £100,000
- Seedrs - online platform for seed capital, for raising £10 - £150,000
Accelerators
A typical program lasts around 3 months with various support including legal, accounting, company setup, typically in a class with 10 to 30 others. Most importantly perhaps, they give you a big in-road into the investment community.
- Springboard - london. most open to companies without product, just idea nd good team. £15k for 6%.
- Hackfwd - everyone on team has to be able to program. £100-£200k.
- Bethnal Green Ventures - just opened up, like social enterprise stuff
- Wayra -
- Springboard mobile - just opened
- Oxygen -
- The Emerge Venture Lab - another one for social enterprises
- Seedcamp - £50k for 10%? or 8%? more of a competition
Places to work and meet others
- Founders Fit - "helping entrepreneurs find co-founders", event meetups and more
- Google Campus - co-working space, near Old Street, various events
- Central Working - Shoreditch, various meeting spaces, partnership with Barclays
- Innovation Warehouse - membership from £25 to £250/mth, Smithfields market
- The Trampery - Shoreditch, £25 (1 day) to £330 (1 month)
Learning within the community
This article appeared in September on the Escape The City blog http://blog.escapethecity.org/categories/how-to-navigate-the-london-startup-scene-one-members-take/