What’s going to be big in these tough times? There are quite a few pin-up entrepreneurs in search of the next big deal. But, the Hoberman/Birch/Goodwin team seem to be somewhat repeating themselves (or is it just slow journos?)
Sunday Times 9 April talks up the above combo and their European Founders Fund – and it gushes: ‘EFC is being set up with an initial £20m of seed funding, which will rise quickly to £50m’.
FT 10 July has the same combo, the same fund manager, launches PROfounders Capital, and gushes: ‘PROfounders Capital has already raised about $30m and is planning to more than double its size by bringing in other entrepreneurs’.
Groundhog Day? Slow news day for Tim Bradshaw?
Meanwhile, my pick of the start-ups to watch for breakthrough moves this week goes to Antixlabs - they have a games download platform which I hear is going gang-busters. Looks like a strong feature play that could get picked up by a handset manufacturer or operating system developer as part of the AppStore2.0 world.
For NorthEast entrepreneurs, I’m also hearing interesting noises about a start-up bootcamp that might come onstream for September. Start polishing your elevator pitches!
And, down at HoultsYard, we’re just about to launch our very own incubator space – rent a desk for £40 per week with broadband fully wired. We’ve set up 10 desks and already rented 4 of them off the back of networking.
