Member Article

£2.25m seed investment for media and creative start-ups

Media and entertainment investment house Ingenious Ventures has launched its first seed programme of £2.25m, and will be travelling the UK to find suitable entrepreneurs.

15 firms in the media and creative industries sector will be selected for investment, and the Ingenious team is looking for new ideas in consumer technology, e-commerce, gaming, fashion and design, publishing and audio-visual content production.

Ingenious will work with investees to develop business models, build teams, infrastructure and peer networks.

The team will tour the UK between June 17 and July 5, and will visit Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Cambridge, Oxford, Cardiff, Bristol, London, Brighton and Belfast.

Patrick Bradley, CEO of Ingenious Ventures, said: “For fifteen years Ingenious has been the engine for the media and creative industries; we have already raised and deployed over £8 billion in the sector. Through the programme we are announcing today, we are continuing to stand behind the top emerging creative talent the UK has to offer.

“Finding 15 great ideas in three months is a challenge. But we’re confident the ideas are out there: this sector is one of the UK’s most under-tapped sources of fast-growth businesses founded by innately entrepreneurial, ambitious and inventive individuals.”

Ingenious Ventures use funds from the Ingenious SEIS Fund, and will make investments of up to £150,000 in each of the 15 businesses.

To be eligible for funding, firms need to be ‘SEIS-qualifying,’ meaning they must: be an unquoted, independent company which is trading, or preparing to trade; not have commenced trading more than two years ago; have fewer than 25 employees; and have gross assets of £200,000 or less.

Those interested in applying to the fund should visit the Ingenious website here. To contact the Ingenious team with an idea, email seedapps@ingeniousmedia.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .