Revolutionise The Phone Battery

Smartphone users of today. All of us have one thing in common, and that is our batteries just do not last long enough. Okay, some more than others have this issue, and it’s more than likely the more new-tech hungry crowd who thrive off of a particular company…ahem…that’s besides the point here. What we are starting to see in the tech world is the ability to charge devices in multiple new ways. Disposable battery pads have been cropping up a few times, and the likes of charging kits made to look like cases have been around for a while now. It’s all very mundane but very useful at the same time, it’s nothing ground breaking either but, maybe the most ground breaking chargeable tech yet has made it’s way on to the scene.

Interestingly, an Israeli company has developed a technology that can charge a mobile in under a minute, and will move on to charging an electric car in a matter of several minutes. They say the tech has integrated the use of nano-technology that actually synthesises artificial molecules, and in which has been developed for a battery to store a much higher charge a lot quicker. Now we’re talking!

These never before developed materials are set to make their way to the market in 2016 as, for now, the tech is too bulky for the smartphone market. We all like a slim model these days. StoreDot, the company behind this revolutionary piece of tech says that the ‘nano-dot’ tech in place are bio-organic peptide molecules. They alter the way the battery behaves to allow the rapid and speedy absorption of power.

If you think that is staggering, StoreDot have remarkably raised a whopping $48 million from just two rounds of funding. According to StoreDots founder, a major phone maker has also backed the company with a significant amount of money but declined to break the news as to who it was. The only information is that it is an Asian company. Intriguing…

Moving forward with the technology, its expectant that it will go on to supply electric cars later down the line, disturbing the current process that generally takes a whole night to charge a single car.

Gone will be the days of eagerly waiting to see the 100% status at the top of your screen before heading out on the town. Blissful!

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US Startup Receives Monumental Funding

Fresh off of Tech Crunch today comes a remarkable tale of a US startup receiving monumental funding. The Los Angeles based company, Scopely is a platform that was built for distributing and monetising mobile games. They previously went through a seed funding round and managed to secure a whopping $8.5 million back in 2012, but the most recent amount just trumps this figure by huge figures.

They progressed to a Series A funding round. First stage, off the mark and they secure $35 million. This is big! A startup that specialises in the publication of other games first and the development of their own games later. Co-founder and CEO Walter Driver, mentions that many of the top end studios creating the best in mobile gaming just do not have the facilities or tools to promote their product – and this is where they plan to come out on top.

Scopely’s games include Disco Bees, Dice With Buddies and Skee-Ball Arcade which recently made it’s way to the top of the iOS app charts in both the United States and Australia. We can expect big things from this intuitive company moving forward. They seemed to make their seed funding round last an impressive two years, showing off incredible capital efficiency that undoubtedly would work wonders for other startups in similar positions.

This is an incredible story that will only carry on growing and adapting as it progresses. Hats off to Scopely for successfully bagging a wonderful funding round, it’s very impressive. Definitely one to tell the grandkids some day!

Funding and investment is a crucial part in any startup situation. It can determine the lifespan of a business from inception through to multinational status. Of course there are other aspects that can help you out along the way; collateral, design, branding . They all act as crucial catalysts and should be treated as such.

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The worlds youngest capital funded entrepreneur?

A new article emerging on the Entrepreneur website has stated that a 13-year-old has gained investment from the tech giant, Intel in recent months. It’s unknown whether or not the young entrepreneur, Shubham Banerjee, is in fact the youngest to ever gain capital investment, but it’s very likely that he is. In fact if you ran a search for “Youngest funded entrepreneur”, Master Banerjee’s name is the most popular search result so by Google’s standards, he in fact is the youngest.

The innovative product that secured Banerjee’s funding is a remarkable brail printer that operates at avery low cost – of course he only has the one in production at the moment but with his funding, he wishes to push it out to the masses offering it at a very low price, much lower than existing products on the market.

The article compares Banerjee to the likes of funded teen entrepreneurs, Nick D’Aloisio, founder of Summly and brothers John and Patrick Collison for their payment service, Stripe. Both companies have been founded by nothing but teenagers with a passion for disrupting a marketplace.

Banerjee’s new business venture is aptly named Braigo. Why? Because his newly funded braille printer product uses the likes of high tech lego parts to form the machinery. A sum of money that has not yet been disclosed has only been reported to be in the hundreds of thousands to help the no 13 year-old expand upon his product. This is onto of the $35,000 his parents loaned him to start the business.

He is still in school. Reportedly achieving As and Bs in every subject, this kid has achieved a life times worth of work in just 12 years. Crack on!
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The North West Fund breaks £100m investment

If you were to ask a small group of people from all walks of life where the best start-up community was housed right here in the UK, they would most likely turn and say London. Now, that can’t be completely true because as the nation finds out every week, that community continues to grow and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Up and down the country there are companies and businesses dedicated to pushing the start-up and entrepreneurial spaces to their highest limits through programmes, institutions and even larger companies. The effect it is having on the nation is remarkable and soon it will overtake the importance of conglomerates for sure.

The North West of England has a very well funded start-up community right now. Recent buzz has been around the North West Fund which has reached an immense figure pushing over £100m. Staggering! The association has shown tremendous outcomes with the start-up community further up the country.

Providing finance from £25,000 to a whopping £2m, the North West Fund grants applications to start-up companies in the area, relocating to the area/region with the vision to develop and grow their business. The private sector has placed a huge chunk of money into this institution that topped up the funds to an incredible £150m. The figures have been released to show that more than 20% of the investments made have been into developing start-ups which is something we are super stoked to hear.

The business benefits of such a magnificent fund institution is that they reach out to numerous industries and disciplines. The arenas are: Digital & Creative, Biomedical, Energy and Environment. Amongst the eligibility criteria to apply for the available funds, not only do you have to be in the region to be eligible but also be no more than 249 employees and have various balance sheet and turnover funds below particular thresholds. It’s all outlined within the European Union business specifications as well so it’s suggested you do your reading, and plenty of it.

All in all, this is a fantastic association helping to fund start-ups in the areas they need it most – to develop and discover. The expansion of start-ups within the UK is reaching a phenomenal growth rate and is a very exciting place to be in and witness everything going on.
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Accelerators Vs Incubators

If you were faced with the question what is the difference between an Accelerator and an Incubator, would you know the answer? More so, would you know where to start looking if you needed a particular platform?

We are going to take you through the facts and figures that fundamentally set Accelerators and Incubators apart from one another. First of all, you should know that there are handfuls of these companies around you that will help you and your business, should you look to get in to one of their programs. They are extremely beneficial and put your business on a fast track towards mentorship, investment and business progression. Keep your head screwed on, is tip numero uno.

The basic definition of these models are loosely acknowledged in some parts and can have a cross over when talking about them in context. The following has been outlined by the online publication INC.

Accelerator: Fundamentally offer funding. An Accelerator will generally take a single-digit equity ownership in return for small amount of capital [for the start-up] and mentorship. The programs tend to last anywhere between 12 and 16 weeks.

Incubator: Fundamentally offer mentorship. An Incubator will work similarly however, it will bring in an external management team to develop an internal idea. Typically these ideas gestate for longer periods of time while taking a larger amount of equity [in comparison].

Just by those definitions you can already tell there are strong similarities yet there are definitive alterations that set them apart from one another. They both have their merits and will be equally beneficial to your business. It’s up to you to do your research and figure out what’s out there!
Don’t let the vagueness tear you away from making an executive decision. Assess the situation and always keep in mind that the line to get in to either an Accelerator or Incubator can be long and take precious time.

If you’re looking for accelerators or incubators in London, you will not find them difficult to come across, that’s for sure. We have strong ties with a couple amazing platforms that we have engaged with through our seed branding winners and some we will be engaging with in the future with seminar talks and lectures etc. Both Sliide and Sideways6 from our seed branding programme have both been through the New Entrepreneurs Foundation (NEF) which acts as a strong mentoring launch pad as well as help their graduates seek funding and investment further down the line. The accelerator you absolutely need to be looking out for is The Startup Institute. Herder, Emeline has been booked in with these guys to speak at some pivotal events the company is holding. All the way from cities such as Chicago, New York, Berlin and Boston, they now reside in London and we are excited they have done!

There are a few things to consider when taking the plunge into the unknown. So remember, don’t forget your fundamentals! Here are what you need to consider:

1) Workspace

This is where Incubators come in handy. Every busy needs a workspace and whether you do it from a quirky café in Barbican or the desk in your front room, an incubator is where you need to be progressing to. Anything further and wider requires funding, we’ll get on to that! Take a look at spaces such as TechHub or Google Campus. They cost a bit of money but will be well worth it!

2) Funding

Take finances into consideration. If you need funds to take your business further but feel overwhelmed with the investment arenas, Incubators and Accelerators will both offer you the resources to get you going. You also have the crowdfunding and personal funding routes to take if you feel these are better suited. Often, a mentor will help you make these decisions based on experience.

3) Mentorship

Mentors can be found everywhere! Every corner you peer around, every bar you drink at. There will be business men and women sat there willing to give you the advice you so desperately seek. They won’t necessarily seek you out, though, unless you are part of an Accelerator program, for example. The right people will put you in touch with whoever you need to get your head around the business world. And trust us, it takes a keen mind to be able to do that.

 

We have plenty more to bleat about around Accelerators and Incubators, all you have to do is pick up the phone or ping a quick email. Job’s a good’un.

 

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Crowd Funding

Investment arenas are versatile, confusing and can be super overwhelming. For a new business there are a few options that can be explored to gain investment either through accelerators, incubators, investment houses, competitions or crowdfunding. The latter option is probably the least scary but can be equally overwhelming. When the moment comes to hit the publish button a sudden rush of anticipation overcomes your being as you start to race through life’s uncertain questions. Will it be successful? Will anyone help me? What happens if I fail at getting enough investment? It’ll haunt you but being an entrepreneur means taking the risks necessary to progress your business. Hit the publish button, take the leap of faith.

Orchestrated from the mid-late 2000’s, the earlier iterations included companies such as Pledgie and IndieGoGo and have since then adapted into major platforms with companies such as KickStarter hopping on the band wagon along the way. In many ways, these companies lit the road into investment arenas for entrepreneurs and start-up companies for the past couple generations. The platforms have also opened up the possibilities for social networks and has enhanced the power it can have for early companies. It’s amazing!

So, among all the choices you can find on the web. Which ones do you go for? Well, majoritively it can come down to personal preference. Some may take the platform that looks to have the biggest crowd supporting businesses, others may delve a little deeper and take a genre specific or business-based stance. At the end of the day you need to do what is best for your company. If you fall short of your goal, it’s not the end of the world. You’re an entrepreneur, get up, brush yourself off and move on.

Take a further look in to the business models that crowd-funding has to offer. The three main pillars are: Reward-based, Equity-based and Credit-based. I’m not going to go into too much detail here because frankly, you’re innovative and intuitive enough to figure it out!

Okay so what platforms are out there? Whether you’re a health company, or in tech, movies or games it’s good to do your research. Even if you do the basic research by going on to each platform and gauging what businesses are on there in numbers compared to how well they are doing. Most sites will give you an overview of recent success stories and successfully funded ideas. They might give you a good idea as to how specific types of businesses fair on crowdfunding platforms.
What’s out there is the first exciting hurdle. You can co go to the big names: IndieGoGo or Kickstarter, crowdsource. Or go a little younger and look at platforms such as CrowdCube, Seedrs or Crowd2Fund. Each of them have their merits and differentiating styles of service but will each facilitate your needs to gain funding.

If in doubt, find a goat and hash it out!

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Toms Takes Investment

Social do-gooder and top shoe retail brand, Toms has partnered with Boston-based capital investment house, Bain Capital. The eight year-strong startup company has been active with third world countries and have achieved some remarkable things.

The press release from retail owner, Mycoskie has accepted the partnership under the terms he gives up 50% of his company while he retained the remaining 50%.

That’s a huge percentage to give up, especially in such an expanding company. Ludacris.

Toms has taken foot and eyewear to exciting places, using their one for one scheme to give something to the charitable arenas. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, for every pair of Toms footwear or pair of glasses you buy, the company will also send a pair to third world countries. I don’t think they have ever told the public whether or not they replicate your order to send out, but we’ll take their word for it.

The partnered investment amount has not yet been stipulated, we’ll take a stab at it being well into the six figure category. Almost definitely will we be seeing major growth from this potential retail giant.




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