Gasta Keywords

Entrepreneur country

Monitise achieves two major milestones
Developing shareholdings and incentive packages
French 'superangel' network announces €25m first fund close
Join us at the upcoming Entrepreneur Country forum, In A World With No Money... 16 June 2010, London
Entrepreneurs Petition against AIFM Directive - Act by Sunday 25 April !


You'll find interviews with many of the UK and Europe's leading entrepreneurs at www.entrepreneurcountry.net.


Monitise Achieves Two Major Milestones
Leading mobile banking and payments provider Monitise has reached two key milestones over the last week. Firstly the company announced it now has over 2 million registered users in the UK and the US, driven by increased uptake of its smartphone apps, and secondly, it has achieved a market capitalisation of £102m.

Monitise provides its secure Mobile Money Manager platform to over 240 banks and financial institutions in the US and UK, with 100 million transactions processed by the platform every year.

Soren Bested, managing director of Monitise Americas commented: “Activity across the Monitise platform continues to increase, servicing millions of transactions every month as we enable more services by text, mobile app, and browser. Smartphones continue to have a big impact on mobile banking - downloading an app and banking on their handset is becoming second nature to many users.”

In the UK, Monitise has partnerships with major retail banks including HSBC, Lloyds TSB, first direct, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Ulster Bank. In the US, Monitise Americas provides mobile banking and payments services to over 200 financial institutions including banks, credit unions, and prepaid card issuers.




Developing shareholdings and incentive packages

by Andrew Moss, corporate finance partner at Duncan Sheard Glass

Issuing or selling shares can often represent a complex challenge for even the most savvy entrepreneurs to negotiate. Where a business is family-run or has personal ties, such decisions can take on an additional, emotive complication.

Whether considering a partial exit, employee share options or recruiting a non-executive, the decision must be made with the express purpose of improving the business. If the overall value of the business consequently increases, the remainder held by the entrepreneur should exceed the whole had the transaction not happened.

When a business owner has resolved to release shares in their business, a shareholder agreement can provide protection for all parties involved.

When drafting the agreement, entrepreneurs should include clauses that allow them to continue drawing money from the business in dividend form for tax purposes without being hamstrung by paying dividends to other shareholders under present legislation. This can usually be achieved quite easily by using different classes of shares.

Shareholder agreements will generally contain specific clauses to determine what happens upon exit and, perhaps more importantly, protect the majority and minority shareholders by barring one from selling their holding and leaving the other vulnerable. Imagine the consequences of a competitor gaining a shareholding in your business.

Read the article here




French 'superangel' network announces €25m first fund close

France's internet entrepreneurs look set to receive a boost with the announcement last week that ISAI, a 'superangel' fund started by some of France's most experienced internet entrepreneurs, has held a first close of €25m.

The fund, which bills itself as "by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs", plans to invest in round sizes between business angels and traditional VCs. ISAI aims to invest in 12 businesses with strong growth potential over the next 12 years. It will put EUR 500,000 to EUR 1.5 million into internet companies less than five years old that have gone through the proof-of-concept phase.

The fund's founding partners include Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, founder of French e-commerce site PriceMinister.com, Phone House France's Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, Former AOL CEO Stéphane Treppoz, and serial entrepreneur Ouriel Ohayon.

Jean-David Chamboredon, previously the head of 3i's VC arm in France, will lead the fund. His track record as a VC is impressive out of 11 early stage investments, 10 are either profitable, have been acquired or completed IPOs.

The majority of the fund comes from 60 founders who will act as a "brain trust" for ISAI, potentially taking board seats and co-investing personally alongside the ISAI fund.





In A World With No Money...

Entrepreneur Country Forum
16 June 2010
IET London: Savoy Place

We're pleased to announce a superb speaker line-up for our next Entrepreneur Country Forum, In A World With No Money...

The economic landscape today is perhaps the most challenging it has ever been for entrepreneurs looking to start businesses and companies trying to grow and expand. With investment capital scarce, businesses of all sizes are being forced to develop alternative growth strategies which are less reliant on substantial cash injections from external investors.

Founded by BBC Online Dragon and CEO of Ariadne Capital Julie Meyer, this must-attend event brings together entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders involved in the world of high-growth internet and technology businesses.

Top quality speakers will address the challenges of doing business in a world with no money:

Julie Meyer - CEO, Ariadne Capital
Lex Fenwick - Chairperson, Bloomberg LP
Rob Hersov - entrepreneur, catalyst and investor
Dominique Vidal - Partner, Index Ventures, co-founder of Kelkoo
Judy Piatkus - founder, Piatkus Books
Alex Cheatle - founder and CEO, Ten Lifestyle Management
Guy Rigby - Head of Entrepreneurs, Smith & Williamson
The day includes pitching sessions, lively panel debates, a showcase of pioneering digital businesses and workshops focused on specific business challenges.

In recognition of the challenging business environment and the theme of the forum, we are offering News, Views and Issues readers a super discount of £200 off the full delegate rate, bringing it down to a very affordable £95!

This is a limited time offer, available only until 14 May 2010, so register now using the discount code NVI2010 to secure your place.
http://entrepreneurcountry.eventbrite.com

If you have any queries, please contact enquiries@entrepreneurcountry.net





Entrepreneurs Petition against AIFM Directive - Act by Sunday 25 April !

Blog post from Fred Destin, Partner at Atlas Ventures

Euro Entrepreneurs, time to lobby! By this Sunday night, April 25, we need to get a significant number of European entrepreneurs to help the European Venture Capital Association in lobbying the EU and signing a petition against this damaging Directive.

Vote against an extensive Directive that will damage European Venture:

The directive sets out a number of measures ill-suited to venture capital and the financing of innovation. This is because it is designed to be a catch-all regulatory blanket that encompasses everyone from hedge funds to venture firms. The impact on both VC firms and startups is potentially significant:

Discriminatory disclosure requirements and administrative burden affecting startups backed by venture capital
Cost of compliance estimated at €30,000 per year for your companies
Absurd capital requirements imposed on venture firms
Requirement to use outside depositaries (i.e. custodians) and independent valuation agents, adding cost and complexity
There is a detailed review of these measures on EVCA.eu under "AIFM Directive". In a striking survey, the EVCA finds that 2/3 of investors questioned would reduce allocations to venture as a result of proposed regulation.

By emailing EVCA you will become a co-signatory to a letter published below, prepared by a fellow entrepreneur, Tom Van Aken of Avantium:

We represent a slice of the 25,000-plus population of European businesses that currently benefit from private equity and venture capital support. We are therefore increasingly alarmed by proposals within the EU’s draft Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive that would prejudice private equity and venture capital-backed companies such as ours, and ultimately restrict access to finance for Europe’s growth companies.

Act now:

Send an email to replies@evca.eu stating name, company name and HQ location and titled "Entrepreneur Petition against AIFM Directive"