Innovify launches 250K crowdfunding drive to revitalise UK start-up scene

Emerging start-up foundry's funding drive on Seedrs to be used to incubate 10 start-ups and address high failure rate in UK scene

Innovify, a new breed of start-up foundry, has today launched a £250,000 crowdfunding drive that it will use to incubate 10 start-ups this year, thereby helping address the high failure rate among UK start-ups by plugging the scene’s “missing gap”.

The joint London and Indian-based company has opened the crowdfunding round – it’s first-ever – with Seedrs, a leading equity crowdfunding platform.

“Although the UK has a very well established start-up eco-system, the failure rate is very high due to a fundamental problem many founders face,” explains Maulik Sailor, Innovify’s founder and CEO. “That problem is finding the right technical co-founder (i.e. Chief Technology Officer) with the appropriate skill-set and experience. Most CTO’s don’t have wide skill sets and lack general product management expertise and agile and lean development practices. This results in the end product being expensive, not fit for purpose and, ultimately, failure and high losses.”

Jeff Lynn, CEO, Seedrs said: "Innovify essentially plugs this missing gap by coming on board as a company's CTO, enabling them to develop their minimum viable product, launch it to market and gain early traction at much lower cost. Their successes to-date are testament to the model and we're honoured they’ve chosen Seedrs to crowdfund properly.”

“The bottom line is this model makes the start-up more attractive for further investors,” adds Sailor.

Innovify was founded in 2011 to accomplish one simple mission: taking people’s great ideas and giving them the necessary support and guidance to become incredible products and services. Their model has successfully helped the likes of Kwanji, Landbay, Converza, Heavenote, Flatchecker, Globr and AtMayfair. Innovify’s target is to help start-ups launch 100 products in the next 10 years, with at least 50 proving successful.

Prior to founding Innovify, Sailor worked on product and technology development at Microsoft, Nokia, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, Betfair and Visa.

Click on the link for more information about Innovify's Seedrs crowdfunding campaign.

Miura Systems announces $16m funding from venture capital syndicate led by DFJ Esprit Secondaries

Miura Systems the leading provider of mPOS devices announced it has closed a $16 million round of funding to accelerate growth. London-based DFJ Esprit Secondaries (DFJES) led the round with participation from DFJ Esprit EIS funds.

Miura Systems, founded by the team behind payment pioneer Dione plc that was sold for $112m and is now part of VeriFone Systems Inc., launched its first product just four years ago with a staff of less than ten people.  Since then, the firm has rapidly accelerated to become a leading provider of innovative and highly secure electronic payment devices with a focus on mobile point-of-sale (mPOS).   It now sells into 45 international markets across five continents, and counts major payment industry players such as PayPal and Swedish mobile payment firm iZettle as customers.  It is rapidly approaching yet another landmark: one million units sold with an estimated transaction volume in excess of $4bn having been processed via Miura devices.   Building on this momentum, Miura Systems, will use this investment to capitalise on its product investment and to further expand its global market position in the mPOS arena.

Ian Rutland, CEO of Miura, says "I am delighted that DFJES and their partners have recognized the exceptional growth story and potential of the Miura team and business in their recent investment.   This transaction provides not only additional capital to support our ambitious growth plans but also additional input at board level to help refine our strategy and enable us to execute more quickly"

"Miura Systems is a fantastic example of an innovative UK business with world class technology taking on and beating the traditional players in this market space across the globe.   This success has been reflected in our recent placing as number 3 in the inaugural Sunday Times BT Business SME Export Track 100, as a firm with one of the fastest growing overseas sales of any small or medium sized business in the country." 

Olav Ostin, managing partner of DFJES, who has joined the Miura Board said "We are excited to be leading this investment and to be supporting Miura and its impressive team as they accelerate their growth globally.  Miura, with its unique and innovative products, is at the forefront of the mPOS and tabletPOS market and we believe that Miura is very well positioned to extend its position as a leading POS payment player in the years to come.

Balderton Capital names former Amazon tech recruitment lead as Talent Director

Balderton Capital has appointed Gilles Stephan, former Europe Talent Acquisition Director and Head of Next Generation Leaders at Amazon, as the partnership's new Talent Director.

Gilles will head Balderton Capital's talent team, which works closely with the firm's portfolio companies to optimise their talent strategies and help scale their teams.

Gilles' role will entail building an ecosystem of talent partners to generate candidates, raise employer branding, develop internal talent and nurture a talent-focused community through a programme of events.

During his tenure at Amazon, Gilles oversaw Amazon's European hiring, and led the Next Generation Leaders challenge. As Talent Acquisition Director for Europe, Gilles helped Amazon open new fulfillment sites in the Eastern European Countries, and establish major new initiatives in countries such as UK and Germany. The Next Generation Leaders Challenge was a unique project, the goal of which was to accelerate the progress of young, intelligent leaders, whilst instilling them with the Amazon company culture.

Gilles advocates an approach to recruitment for startups that is fast, simple, efficient,  flexible and long-term orientated.

Gilles said: "We are creating an environment for our portfolio companies to receive the comprehensive support they need to build a perfect team. If a company succeeds, usually a lot of that success is because of their unique skills, capabilities and passion. Having the right talent in your team is the cornerstone of that."

Balderton Capital has recently relocated offices to Kings Cross, and now hosts a calendar of events at the partnership's new headquarters to further encourage regular interaction with portfolio companies. The firm's forthcoming talent strategy also aligns with these values. 

Bernard Liautaud, General Partner at Balderton Capital, welcomed Gilles to the team, and said: "At Balderton, we have long been committed to providing added value for our portfolio companies. Managing talent is one of the most important things that a growing business needs to master, as an effective and well-motivated team can be the difference between success and failure. Gilles brings a wealth of relevant experience to the table, and we look forward to watching our talent department grow with him at the helm."