The Pluralists Club will turn business people into rock stars and more 

The Pluralists Club: created for people moving from a traditional career to a portfolio one that can include everything from earning from your hobby to lucrative NED roles.

The Pluralists Club has announced its launch today. The Club will give its members the skills, guidance and network to develop a flexible portfolio career of traditional and non-traditional income streams, so they can find success and satisfaction outside a standard corporate or professional career.
 
The recent raft of mass redundancies in large organisations, especially in the City and Government, will lead to even greater numbers looking for a new career in January 2016 than the 57% who wanted to move in 20151. The Pluralists Club will meet this desire for career control by giving members access to everything they need to build a life which blends normal work with non-executive directorships and new opportunities such as blogging, vlogging, politics or making money from hobbies.
 
The Pluralists Club has been created to serve in the new world of the Plurocracy where people aspire to, and pursue, portfolio careers in place of a “conventional” 21-retirement corporate career. Today’s Pluralists span boundaries that would have been unfathomable even half a generation ago.
 
Founder and Executive Chairman Modwenna Rees-Mogg, herself a serial entrepreneur and ‘Pluralist’, said: “In the Plurocracy we celebrate the achievements of Pluralists whether they are entrepreneurs who want to become NEDs, investors and charity trustees, or lawyers and accountants who dream of chucking in their career to become rock stars or bestselling authors . The Pluralists Club will ensure no-one has to sink into obscurity just because they have outgrown their first career, and can continue to earn for years, while having more fun and satisfaction than before.”
 
John Hobart, CEO, said: “Many people aspire to have a portfolio career, but it is really hard to build one if you have had your head down building your business or conventional career for 20 or more years, even if because of circumstances you find yourself with lots of time on your hands. At The Pluralists Club we enable you to create and develop a personalised Plural life, and help you meet the people who will make it happen.”
 
Members2 interested in earning from their hobbies or pursuing new career paths, such as becoming a journalist, an NED, a politician, a charity trustee, an entrepreneur, a public speaker, or even a rock star, will be able to:

• attend practical days, delivered by successful Pluralists, to access valuable information and training to develop knowledge and skills to follow new paths
• join experience days, delivered by celebrities and subject experts, which will explore how to exploit the wide variety of income streams and voluntary work available to a Pluralist
• come to networking evenings to make the key contacts and personal introductions which are key to a successful transition to a challenging, multi-faceted, plural career.

 
The Pluralists Club opens today at www.thepluralists.club – members will meet up in person for the first time at the inaugural Annual Dinner on 14 January in London, with guest speaker to be announced shortly.

For more details on how you can become a Pluralist and join the Plurocracy, please see the website at www.thepluralists.club, email [email protected], or call 02036 375 573.
 
1https://www.investorsinpeople.com//press/60-cent-uk-workers-not-happy-their-jobs
2Membership of The Pluralists Club is dependent on paying the subscription and meeting the terms and conditions of the Club.




FinTech Startup Nous Global Markets Raises £500,000 to produce new financial trading app for mobile phones 

London-based start-up and Innovate Finance member Nous Global Markets today announced it has completed a successful round of funding that exceeded the initial target.

The company, which was created to educate people about the enjoyment and challenges of financial markets, originally aimed to raise  £350,000 but quickly reached that target and chose to halt over-funding at £500,000.The money was raised from a combination of Angel investors, Venture Capital and crowd-funding.

The investment is an important validation both of Nous’s traction since going live in 2014, having reached over 300,000 users at very low cost, and of their future plans. Nous will use the funds to release a revolutionary new trading application designed specifically for individuals that are excluded by current products.

Nous’ first round of funding was raised from private investors, predominantly senior finance and technology professionals at global investment banks. This second round brought crowd-funded investment via Syndicate Room‘s platform; as well as strategic investors such as Tantalus Capital, and K.V. Rao, CEO of California-based predictive analytics firm Aviso.

Justin Short, CEO of Nous, says:

“With the great success of our Spark Profit application we realised that there were millions of people with discretionary capital and the desire to trade in financial markets, but no way for them to do that economically. We will put the world’s most consumer-friendly trading system into their pockets: low-cost; ultra low-risk; and with up to 20x returns.”

Nous Global Markets was founded in September 2012 by Justin Short and four other former Merrill Lynch traders and technologists. Originally based in Tokyo it has since relocated to London and has received EIS Advance Assurance.

In January 2014, Short and his colleagues launched their free-to-play virtual trading game — ‘Spark Profit’ — which enables players to predict financial market movements with no risk, in return for cash prizes. Spark Profit’s uniquely visual, beginner-friendly interface and weekly cash rewards have already attracted over 300,000 users in 200 separate countries.

At the beginning of 2015, while learning more about their customers’ needs, they found that 95% of regular players wanted to trade their own money, preferably inside Spark Profit itself. A thorough review of the competition showed that there was indeed a very large opportunity to create a simple, low-risk way for people to trade — which would be a natural progression of the existing app and a validation of Nous’ “profit together” ethos. The new trading application will feature a unique combination of consumer-friendly features unavailable elsewhere. It is due for soft-launch in Q1 2016.




PANORAMIC LAUNCHES NEW £50M GROWTH FUND INTO THE UK MARKET

Successful SME investment strategy has fresh firepower

Panoramic, a leading equity investor in fast growing, entrepreneurial UK companies, is delighted to announce the first close of its new £50m Panoramic Growth Fund 2 (“Fund 2”).  This is a significant step in the evolution of Panoramic’s business.  The new fund will be targeted at high growth smaller companies in the UK.  Funding has been raised from a range of institutional investors, with a final close expected in the first half of 2016.

Investments of between £1m and £5m will be made into companies that are seeking to capitalise on growth opportunities, that have excellent management teams and that have achieved turnover of more than £1m in the prior 12 months.  A range of sectors will be considered, with a partner led approach across the entire United Kingdom.

Fund 2 was raised on the back of Panoramic’s highly successful first fund, which has already returned all capital to its investors and continues to develop its remaining portfolio across a range of sectors.  Three successful exits have been achieved so far including the sale of Cascade Technologies to Emerson, the sale of Solfex Energy Systems to Travis Perkins and the secondary buyout of Specialist Tours, a consolidator in the cultural holidays market.

The new fund has entirely flexible capital.  Panoramic are well known for their innovative approach to investing, and the new fund will support the full spectrum from management buyouts and replacement capital, to financing growth for aspiring business owners. Panoramic was set up by Stephen Campbell, David Wilson and Malcolm Kpedekpo in 2009.  With the fund now live, Stephen Campbell commented:

“Our success in raising our second fund has come as a result of backing a number of exceptional businesses.  We are genuinely excited about the prospects for Fund 2 and building a further portfolio of successful and diverse businesses, and to working with the ambitious and talented entrepreneurs that drive these companies forward.  With highly flexible capital now available, we will be targeting both buyout and growth capital to UK smaller companies and know that this is an important step for Panoramic to maintain its position as one of the leading investors in UK.”



VentureFounders supports VC-backed idio’s £1.5m equity fundraise

VentureFounders, the UK-based equity investment platform, is now taking investment in idio, a content intelligence platform that allows companies to tailor their online content to the individual reader, in order to drive engagement.

idio already has strong backing, with existing investors –  including Notion Capital – supporting this £1.5 million EIS eligible fundraise. The Co-Founders, Andrew Davies and Edward Barrow, are seasoned and highly motivated technology entrepreneurs, supported by an experienced management team with a track record of several successful exits.

idio has established a solid customer base across several different countries and sectors, particularly the financial services market. Key clients include JP Morgan, Direct Line Group, TD Canada Trust and IG Group.

idio’s technology helps brands understand their customers and prospects, predicting their interests and intent. This powerful dataset drives content effectiveness, engagement, and helps bridge marketing and sales misalignment in order to drive revenue. The results are evidenced by a strong record of upsells to existing clients, as well as growth in new business.

James Codling, co-founder & Managing Director of VentureFounders, said:

“idio is run by two highly entrepreneurial and ambitious individuals, who are aiming to revolutionise the way companies manage their online content to drive customer engagement. We are impressed by idio’s performance to date and its client portfolio including some of the global financial institutions.”

Andrew Davies, co-founder of idio, added:

“We have found a unique way of helping large enterprises deliver effective customer experiences, and this round of fundraising will be critical to drive our growth in the UK and US. We chose VentureFounders to support part of this fundraise because the team really understand the kind of fundraise we are doing, understand our value proposition for financial services businesses and have experience in working with VC backed companies.”

Further information on the idio investment opportunity is available via:  www.venturefounders.co.uk




Browne Jacobson advises on a hat-trick of deals during busy festive period

National law firm Browne Jacobson has completed a hat-trick of deals during a busy festive period for the firm’s corporate finance team.

Corporate finance lawyers from the firm’s Nottingham office advised on the sale of ODD to London listed Next 15 Communications Group plc, the global digital communications business. The deal will see Next 15 acquire the entire shareholding of co-founders Simon Glover and Nick Strickland. Following completion of the sale Nick and Simon will continue as Directors.

ODD is a London based creative agency whose clients include  some of the world's leading consumer-facing fashion and lifestyle brands including Henri Lloyd, Primark, Dr. Martens, Benefit, Forever 21, Nike and Eastpak.

On the same day the firm successfully advised existing chief executive Arlene Adams and incoming chairman Neville Davis of Peppermint Technology on a £10m investment from venture capital firm Scottish Equity Partners.

Peppermint Technology, a specialist legal and dispute management technology provider, has grown rapidly since its launch in 2010 and currently employs 60 personnel as its Nottingham based operation.

Both deals were led by corporate finance partner Nigel Blackwell, assisted by Sam Sharp.

Nigel Blackwell said:

“Once again we have had a very busy 2015 and we are ending the year on a high. Both deals demonstrate our strength in getting deals over the line and underline our credentials in the mid-market arena.”

To complete the hat-trick of deals Birmingham based corporate finance partner Kevin Jones advised Nottingham-based Central Lettings Solutions Limited as one of two delivery partners to Sigma Capital Group and Gatehouse Bank on the £114m second phase of their private rented sector project that will see around 900 new rental homes constructed across ten sites in the North West. The project’s house building partner is Countryside Properties (UK) Ltd.

Central Lettings Solutions is part of the Shepherd Direct Group and was established in 2011 to provide an end to end service to institutional investors and developers operating in the private rental sector.

Kevin Jones, added:

“Shepherd Direct Group is a long standing client and we are delighted to have acted for their private rented sector lettings division on this major project which is being supported by the Kuwait Investment Authority as part of a Government backed initiative to encourage foreign investment in the UK housing sector.”

Earlier this year Browne Jacobson advised Shepherd Direct Group on a £10m investment by the Business Growth Fund and in 2013 acted for the company on its agreement to acquire the licensing rights to operate the globally renowned Century 21 estate agency and lettings brand throughout the UK, Channel Islands, Gibraltar and Isle of Man.