European venture capital firm Lakestar has closed a new €350m fund. The oversubscribed pot will provide “personal attention and support” alongside finance to firms with the potential to repeat the success of earlier investment projects like Facebook.
Ecommerce business Amazon is launching one of its Amazon Web Services Pop-Up Lofts in London on 10 September, providing guidance on how entrepreneurs, engineers and developers can build on the platform and boost operations.
WhoCanFixMyCar.com started the year by being named in Real Business’ Everline Future 50 2015, and the online marketplace for car repairs has gone on to win investment from vehicle industry veteran Trevor Chinn and Active Private Equity.
Online takeaway marketplace JUST EAT has revealed the strategies it is employing to facilitate further growth as a public company, including removing restaurants that were giving customers a bad experience and collaboration with Apple Pay.
By Will Gibbs
Will Gibbs, a member of the ventures team at Octopus Investments, provides behind the scenes tips on the best way to first approach, and then secure investment from, a venture capital firm.
American rock band Linkin Park has brought on board a “creative business executive” to help its move towards global brand partnerships and venture capital, with music taking a back seat.
In a week which is supposed be be showcasing the fast-growth London technology sector, it is alarming that a special on-ramp designed to make it easier for these companies to float has only had two takers.
On the back of rolling out its operations into 18 new cities in the UK, Real Business asked Remo Gerber, the UK CEO of taxi app Gett, what he thought the future had in store.
By Richard Mann
It seems everybody is doing the crowdfunding thing at the moment. New crowd platforms are popping up everywhere. To avoid being left behind, some business angel networks are partnering up with crowd platforms or even launching into the market themselves.
Banks are often considered part of the problem for businesses that are struggling to secure money. As such, alternative finance methods – such as crowdfunding – have become a blessing, while venture capital is still a popular way to secure investment. But entrepreneur Mark Pearson has something else in mind – financing a VC firm with the crowd.
