New business ventures, social enterprises and creative projects can now get investment at Civilisedmoney, the next generation investment platform which launches this month. Whether its £500 for a local community scheme or £1m+ to launch the next big business venture, Civilisedmoney can help you secure investment.

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is the next generation of business investment, giving entrepreneurs the platform and opportunity to raise smaller amounts of funding from their own network of friends, family, colleagues, customers, suppliers and ordinary people, rather than from one or two wealthy investors.

By attracting lots of investors who invest smaller amounts of money into a person, company, product or idea, in return for equity or other rewards, entrepreneurs can bypass the traditional choices of business angels or venture capital and get on with the business, whether commercial, social or just personal.

With banks repeatedly failing to pump the much needed investment into business and enterprise, entrepreneurs need more effective, innovative ways to fund their ideas. Crowdfunding has the benefits of building a network of supporters and advocates, pre-selling your product and testing the market, and you begin your business without debts and loans.

About civilisedmoney

Civilisedmoney, online people-to-people financial services, owned by you, makes it easy for people to invest, donate, lend, borrow and transact money with each other directly at fair and transparent rates, cutting out need for the middlemen, the banks.

Civilisedmoney launches with two crowdfunding products for entrepreneurs, businesses, organisations and individuals. civilisedmoney is also developing a full range of people-to-people financial services products that offer a genuine alternative to those currently provided by banks.

Civilisedmoney and people-to-people internet services give people the opportunity to come together to create a fresh financial future. One that is fair, transparent and without the expense of branches and big bonuses or the dangers of banks gambling with your money. It is banking with people, not banks, simply people connecting directly, fairly and transparently.

Crowdfunding with Civilisedmoney

Civilisedmoney currently offers two crowdfunding products for entrepreneurs, businesses, organisations and individuals:

Invest & Get Investment is equity based crowdfunding to fund start-ups and business expansion. It connects entrepreneurs with like-minded people in order to raise capital.

Crowdfund & Get Funded is reward based crowdfunding. Likeminded people can pool their money to back an idea, a person, or a business, in exchange for goods, services or something else of value.

Contact Civilisedmoney

If you have a venture or project you would like to crowdfund, please contact Rudi Schogger at rschogger@civilisedgroup.com or for more information, please visit www.civilisedmoney.co.uk

High School Teenpreneur Shahed Khan has spent his summer networking with everyone and pitching to Venture Capitalists. Why? Because he has ambitions to see his business idea be successful. While he is only 16, he has already got a team of 4 people for his company Viatask.

Viatask is a social errand running platform. It connects people who need errands done, but are too busy to carry them out themselves, with people who have some free time to carry out these errands and gives them a chance to make some cash.

Shahed separates these people into ‘Posters’ & ‘Runners’, I think you can guess which is which. He got the idea after watching ‘Million Dollar Listing’ where a rich business man paid his concierge to travel to America and buy him a house for his family.

He realised there are many people who may have the time to accommodate doing errands in their spare time and getting paid, while their are many people who don’t have the time to run errands due to work commitments and are able to pay others to complete these simple tasks.

Whilst many people come up with business ideas, Shahed went through with it and started up Viatask and has been pitching for investment during his summer holidays. The 16 year old businessman looks at the positives of being a young entrepreneur, “My age alone is a great marketing strategy for the company. Not a lot of entrepreneurs meet young entrepreneurs like me, so I get a lot of their attention.” he says.

Although people tend to remember him and give more attention, he does find attending many networking events impossible as they are held in over 21 bars! He is also due to head back to school soon but is determined to make it work. He has a good sized team who can all contribute, he says ”Without a great team you can’t build a startup.”

The number of teen entrepreneurs is on the rise and as barriers to entry are low and more successful young entrepreneurs start to garner media attention, I’m we will see more and more teenpreneurs. Good luck to Shahed on building his startup.

–
Follow @rishi_chowdhury

A friend of mine phoned me last week, asking me if i knew the different funding and investment options in the UK, i quickly wrote the ones i remembered quickly from the top of my head and decided to do a bit of research to see if i was missing any other investment firm or funds.

Now you have no excuse -This is the list, Hope you find it useful.

Funding

UNLTD – (http://www.unltd.org.uk/)
BIG CHALLENGE -(http://www.bigchallenge.org.uk/)
MEDIA BOX- (http://www.media-box.co.uk/)
IDEAS TAP (http://www.ideastap.com)
BIG LOTTERY FUND (http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/funding-uk)
PRINCES TRUST – (http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/)
SHELL LIVEWIRE – (http://www.shell-livewire.org)
BREAK THROUGH FUND (http://www.breakthroughfund.org.uk/)
THE SOCIAL INVESTMENT BUSINESS – (http://www.thesocialinvestmentbusiness.org/)
FIT 4 FUNDING – (http://www.fit4funding.org.uk/)
SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS – (http://www.sse.org.uk/)
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE AMBASSADORS – (http://www.socialenterpriseambassadors.org.uk/)
KICKSTARTER (http://www.Kickstarter.com)
The Carbon Trust (http://www.carbontrust.co.uk)
NESTA (http://www.nesta.org.uk)

Seed Investments

SEEDCAMP – (http://www.Seedcamp.com)
SPRINGBOARD – (http://www.Springboard.com)
The Difference engine- (http://www.thedifferenceengine.eu/)
Astia – (http://www.astia.org)

VC

MMC Ventures (http://www.mmcventures.com)
Dawn Capital (http://dawncapital.co.uk/Home.aspx)
Eden Ventures (www.edenventures.co.uk)
Spark Ventures (www.sparkventures.com)
YFM Group (www.yfmgroup.co.uk)
London Technology Fund (www.londontechnologyfund.com)
Solon Ventures (http://www.solonventures.com/)
Pro-Founder Capital (http://www.profounderscapital.com/)
Bridge Ventures (http://www.bridgesventures.com/)
Albion Ventures (http://www.albion-ventures.co.uk/)
Ariadne Capital (http://www.ariadnecapital.com/)
Index ventures (http://www.indexventures.com/)
Besport ventures (http://www.bestport.co.uk/index.htm)

Angel Networks

British Business Angels Association – (http://www.bbaa.org.uk)
OION – (http://www.oion.co.uk/)
Cambridge Angels (http://cambridgeangels.angelgroups.net/)
Envestors (http://www.envestors.co.uk)
London Business Angels (http://www.lbangels.co.uk/)
Angels Den – (http://www.angelsden.co.uk/)
Advantage Business Angels – (http://www.advantagebusinessangels.com/)

Let me know if i have missed any of the list on the comment section so i can add them to the list.

It was announced today that Bloomingfeld Ltd, an environmental consulting and engineering group based in London, is to setup a seed capital investment unit called Zungzi. The aim of which will be to support young entrepreneurs and tech heads turn their ideas into reality. They hope they can help start ups by investing up to £20,000 if successful. They will also then help businesses in finding future funding as well as training in all aspects of entrepreneurship.

This can be invaluable for many young start-ups who have the ideas but maybe lack the business acumen to take their ideas to the next level. A good grounding can help build a successful future for any new business and Zungzi’s proposal is a great opportunity for any budding young entrepreneurs.

To be in with a chance of receiving investment, youngsters are invited to submit their ideas via the companies website, where it will be looked at, before the selected start-ups will be given the opportunity to pitch their concept at a talent day.

CEO Willem Van Gulck had this to say “Innovation is key to our own survival in an ever changing world, therefore we strongly believe that any support given to young entrepreneurs might encourage others to go boldly ahead in accomplishing their own ideas, transforming our mutual challenges into change.”

It is great that a company like this is encouraging young entrepreneurship in the UK and hopefully we will see more of the same over the coming years.

You can find out more at www.zungzi.co.uk.

Follow me on Twitter here.

Ok Guys, do you all remember Jessica mah, the young female entrepreneur i interviewed a while ago.

Well, Reports from techcrunch says her company Indinero has just recently raised over $1M
Confirmed investors in the round includes 500 StartUps ‘ Dave McClure, Microsoft’s Fritz Lanman, and YouTube’s Jawed Karim.

Indinero is the Mint for small businesses and is off to a running start as this latest round is set to close between 1 and 1.5 million.

Apparently she has to turn down other investors, i guess it shows the potential of her company, i guess your company must really kick ass to be compared to mint.

We await reports of the closure of the deal, YHP wishes jessica the best!

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I have been following seedcamp a lot recently, especially after listening to Reshma sohoni speak at a UCL event a while ago and when a friend of mine Julian polzella entered into seedcamp, i even paid more attention, so it is definitely time i wrote about and let me know what it is about, that is people who do not know about it is obviously, rather than me secretly monitoring it.

I also listened to Andrew Warner funny and interesting interview with Reshma, seedcamp’s CEO.

I spoke to Reshma a while ago and i remember asking what it takes for seedcamp to approve start-ups for investments.

Here are a few

Two co-founders must complement each other
One co-founder should be a coder

Actually, Listen to Andrew warner interview on mixergy, she speaks about it all in more details.

I remember reaching out to them a while ago about some promotional work and was so amazed in how willing they were to help.

Going back a bit, for everyone that is new to seedcamp

Seedcamp is an organization to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe by putting the next generation of developers and entrepreneurs in front of a network of company builders; including seed investors, serial entrepreneurs, product experts, HR specialists, marketers, lawyers, recruiters, journalists and venture capitalists.

Seedcamp acts as a micro seed fund to invest in startup companies, mainly through its flagship event Seedcamp Week which takes place in September. It also runs Mini Seedcamps in several startup hubs around Europe from January-June. Seedcamp’s standard investment is €30-50k. Following Seedcamp Week, the companies who receive investment stay in London for 3 months to grow and develop their company.

Seedcamp was started by saul klein and Reshma sohoni.

If you can remember a while ago, we did some interview on some start-ups funded by seedcamp
For more information visit: htt://www.seedcamp.com

The Dragons are back for another series, and to be honest i can’t wait, the show is amazing!!

And if you don’t know about it …
Dragons’ Den sees entrepreneurs pitching for investment from some of Britain’s top business brains.

It is going to be airing Wednesday 15th July 21:00 – BBC Two and BBC HD

Is anyone planning on going to play in the den anytime soon?
What do you think of the show?
Who is your favourite person on the show?

To watch some old episodes and about more in fo on the programme
click here

PepsiCo Inc. and Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. are planning to expand their manufacturing and distribution network in russia over the next 3 years, the reported amount needed is said to be around $1 billion.

Mobile operator NTT DoCoMo also a provider of mobile voice, data and multimedia services has invested $45.5 million in PacketVideo, a long-time supplier of mobile video software which gives NTT Docomo a 35 percent stake in PacketVideo

I Was watching the latest pitches been made on the richard branson’s blog, and i have to tell you, they are some really good pitches been made, So i got thinking…

And if you are thinking, what hell is PITCHTV??

It states on Richard Branson’s blog

“As part of it’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, Virgin Atlantic is launching a new show, PitchTV, which will air onboard and will also be available online here.

We’re now inviting entrepreneurs in search of investment and exposure for their business ideas to upload short video pitches.

The community here will vote for their favourite video pitches and each month, the winning videos will feature as part of Virgin Atlantic’s PitchTV show which will air on their inflight entertainment system – gaining exposure to the hundreds of business professionals who regularly fly Virgin Atlantic. Anyone interested in hearing more about the most popular entrepreneurs’ business ideas will then be able to get in contact and maybe help take their ideas further.

When I was starting out, I wish I could have had the chance to pitch my business ideas directly to people who could help make my ambitions a reality. We can now make that happen for you.

If you’re a budding entrepreneur, we’re giving you the unique opportunity of getting your ideas by top business professionals from around the world on board Virgin Atlantic planes as well online here.

Who knows – among the viewers might be someone with the power to bring your idea to life.

All you have to do is film yourself delivering the very best pitch possible, but make sure it’s no longer than 2 minutes. Then simply upload your video pitch here.

Each year, I will also personally select my favourite pitch, and the winner will receive a very special prize which I’ll reveal more details about later on…

In the meantime, get your 2 minute pitches together, film them, upload them and may the best pitches get the exposure they deserve!”

Good luck!

Exciting Right??

Let me know if you are going to pitch your ideas…
And also which pitch is your favourite

Check it out @
http://entrepreneur.virgin.com/2009/06/08/pitchtv-vote-for-your-favourite-video-pitch/