Soshi Games raises £285,000 through crowd-funding

Innovation Birmingham Campus-based Soshi Games has secured £285,000 via the SyndicateRoom equity crowd-funding platform, taking the total investment in the business to £1.4 million since it was established in 2010.

SyndicateRoom's blended model enabled the crowd investment to take place, alongside Soshi's existing investors; Midven and private investors.

Soshi Games is the creator of Music Festivals Game, which enables players to build and manage their own music festival, and is the only game of its kind which integrates 'real' music. Over 800,000 players have installed the game on Facebook, with thousands of new installs being gained every day. The game helps artists to get discovered and provides new revenue streams for music rights holders; providing artist management, labels, merchandisers and media partners with a vehicle to monetise their social media fan bases.

Female entrepreneur favours the democracy of crowdfunding over traditional finance

Tidy Books raises £105k on Crowdcube to take award-winning children's bookcases global

Geraldine Grandidier, award-winning founder of Tidy Books , is set to fulfil her dream by expanding her business overseas, after rejecting other forms of finance and raising £105,600 on equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.

Tidy Books overfunded its original target of £75,000 by 140%, raising the capital from 116 investors for 11.35% equity. One evangelistic customer liked the product so much he put in £15,000.

Dedicated crowdfunding platform for mumpreneurs launches

Mums Mean Business intends to support female entrepreneurship across the world

A global crowdfunding platform specifically targeted at supporting aspiring and established mumpreneurs has launched today, marking a new first for the crowdfunding industry.

Borne out of a belief that female enterprise is "no longer a gender issue but an economic issue", Mums Mean Businesswill be accessible only to female entrepreneurs looking to raise investment and will operate an all-or-nothing and rewards based model.

With a goal to "help any working mum and would-be-entrepreneur to finance their commercial ambitions", alongside its funding opportunity, the site will provide every successful pitch company with a year's free mentoring and business tools from professional women's organisations.

The Kickstarter campaign now taking its cycle product to the masses

From a raw prototype developed as part of a final year degree piece, the Blaze Laserlight is now being manufactured in China and is backed by Index Ventures and the Branson family

Despite starting a physics degree at Oxford University, Emily Brooke quickly realised her real passion was in the creative space - specifically product design. Having swapped the Oxbridge lifestyle for a place at the University of Brighton studying product design, it was her final year piece which has ultimately turned into an innovative cycling product and platform to build a quality brand from. For someone who is now never found very far from a bicycle, Brooke only decided to get on one in 2010 when she cycled the length of the country. With the cycle bug cursing through her veins she gave herself a final year university theme of urban cycling and quickly identified the biggest problem facing riders in cities - safety. Fast-forward two years and Brooke has already become one of the most successful UK Kickstarter campaigns (the rewards-based crowdfunding platform which provides incentives to backers), and is now rolling out her product from its manufacturing base in China.