The Forsyth Group – Executive Search

Congratulations to the team at Crashpadder our Seedcamp portfolio company who were just acquired by Airbnb. This is the second exit from Seedcamp after Mobclix were acquired in 2010 by Velti.

Well done to Stephen and Dan!

Read the full story here

Our Managing Partner Brett presented to 45 LBS [www.london.edu] students on the state of the hi-growth technology sector on the 15^th February. The audience members were interested in finding out more about this sector as they had demonstrated a strong interest in the entrepreneurial space and potentially working with growing companies, especially in the technology sector. Brett was asked to talk about the current landscape in the high-growth technology space in the UK and Europe and give advice for those looking to develop their careers in the sector.

Link to the presentation:  http://slidesha.re/z3MDXX

Link to video: http://bit.ly/wBQ5sW

Not to be outdone Imperial College Business School Entrepreneurs Interactive Club have asked Brett to present on the 19^th of March on how to build the right start-up team!

Rosemary and Brett spent January the 31^st with mentors and entrepreneurs at the 2012 London Seedcamp event in Soho. The competition was intense with excellent pitches from 22 teams; the winners came from Spain, Belgium, Estonia and London. Congratulations to 24Symbols , Bluefields, Checkthis and Pult  – Pult should be commended for an awesome live demo that blew all the mentors and judges away. The teams are off to the US for Roadtrip Seedcamp USA, which will involve meeting all the good and the great (and the VCs) from the high tech world in the US.

After Roadtrip USA the next Seedcamp event will be Tel Aviv – apply here

Brainient raises $1.8M to make video advertising more effective

Our mission at Brainient is to help advertisers make their video ads more effective. In order to get closer to that mission, we’re announcing that we’ve closed a $1.8M funding round from a collective of strategic investors. The round was led by Prague-based Credo Ventures. Other backers include Atlas Venture (investors in DataXu, AdSafe Media, OwnerIQ) and Estag Capital (investors in RevenueMax, Germany’s leading yield optimisation platform). Existing investors Sherry Coutu and 500Startups also participated in the round.

We’ll be using the financing to expand our client services and technology teams, by expanding our London and Bucharest offices and opening a new office in New York.

We’ve enjoyed exceptionally strong growth through 2011, with nearly 100 campaigns served over the year for customers like Samsung, Volvo, Canon with our BrainRolls product – generating, on average, three to five times higher CTRs than non-interactive pre-rolls. We also launched BrainAds, the first personalised video retargeting platform in the world helping customers like GetTheLabel and GlassesDirect get click-to-sale conversion rates of up to 10%.

The new funding will help us accelerate our growth in 2012 and continue innovating in the video advertising space. We’re thrilled to have such a fantastic list of new investors on board and we look forward to making our customers incredibly happy in 2012 as well.

You can find the press release here.

CoSkill is the next generation strategic consultancy. They deliver the best of three broken sectors: the tangibility and commerciality of management consulting and business strategy, with the power to change business; the consumer connection of marketing and advertising, with the ability to engage stakeholders; and the sheer power of digital technology, embracing web, social, mobile and data.

Steph Welstead, editor of Startups.co.uk, said: “We were blown away by the standard of entries to this year’s Startups Awards. All of the businesses who made it to the 2011 final have shown innovation, guts and determination and the success they have achieved against the backdrop of the economic downturn is a true testament to the strength of UK entrepreneurship’’.

Competition was fierce but the judges felt it takes a high level of intellect to intersect a market at a particular time and Craig Le Grice is one who stood out from the crowd. Since starting in February the company already have an enviable roster of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 clients, who have turned to the consultancy for very specialised digital and social media marketing knowledge.

We would like to congratulate all of this year’s winners and wish them continued growth and success in the years to come.

Siemens expands its industrial software portfolio with the acquisition of Vistagy, Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, a leading supplier of specialized engineering software and services with emphasis on designing and manufacturing structures made of advanced composite materials.

An agreement to this effect was signed in early November. This acquisition allows Industry Automation, a Division of the Siemens Industry Sector, to continue to enhance its position as the world’s leading supplier of industrial software. The parties agreed not to disclose the terms of the acquisition. The transaction is subject to customary approvals, and is expected to close before the end of 2011.

Read the full story on http://www.vistagy.com

From Russia with love: two Moscow-based investment firms have led a $17 million funding round for B2B social networking and e-invoicing company Tradeshift, valuing the company at $137 million.  The investors are ru-Net and Kite Ventures, with earlier backer Notion Capital also participating.

Tradeshift basically connects businesses – of all sizes, they’re keen to point out – to help them work together and collaboratively manage things like invoicing and cash flow.

Read the full story on  http://eu.techcrunch.com/

On Tuesday, 1 November 2011, global law firm Orrick will host a panel discussion on the current trends in the use of stock incentives by growing companies. The event will focus on practical rather than technical aspects and will bring together a number of experts in the field. Topics will include: current market rules of thumb for grants to attract talent; getting the valuation you need agreed with HMRC; trends in vesting schedules; cautionary tales on missing out on EMI treatment; and claw-back for leavers after the Skype controversy.

Confirmed panel members include:

Nick Thornton, Tax Partner: Orrick, London (Chair of Panel)
Tony Hindley, Principal: Valuation Solutions (ex HMRC Valuation Office)
James Lindon, Share Schemes Specialist: Orrick, London
Brett Putter, Managing Partner: Emerging Technologies, The Forsyth Group
Giles Hawkins, Senior Associate: Orrick, London

Asperity Employee Benefits named NatWest Fast Growth Business of the Year

Asperity Employee Benefits walked away with the top prize at the  Fast Growth Business Awards (FGBA), organised by Growing Business.

Asperity, which offers integrated employee benefits to over 500 of the UK’s employers – including IBM, Vodafone and BskyB – and over 1.5 million employees, picked up the NatWest Fast Growth Business of the Year trophy, after earlier receiving the Service Business of the Year award.

The company was chosen by a judging panel, which included Shortlist Media boss Mike Soutar and angel investor  and founder of the Forsyth Group, Rosemary Forsyth, in recognition of a remarkable year which has seen turnover increase from £28.5m to £79.2m, and profits rise more than three-fold.

Category winners

Nicko Williamson and Rosemary Forsyth

Nicko Williamson’s green taxi venture Climate Cars took the title of Young Entrepreneur Business of the Year award which was presented by Rosemary Forsyth.

Other winners included Zoopla.co.uk, who received the Innovative Business of the Year award; Ella’s Kitchen, which was named International Business of the Year, Aydya Ltd, which claimed the New Business of the Year prize and IT and technology consultancy firm Gibbs S3 was named Family Business of the Year.

Magmatic, creator of the ride-along Trunki suitcase, claimed the Product of the Year award, while P2i, which has developed a waterproof nano-coating for shoes, iPods and other consumer staples, emerged triumphant in the Best Use of Technology category.

Sarah Wood of Unruly Media was crowned Female Entrepreneur of the Year, after her company produced prominent campaigns for clients such as T-mobile, including a viral video spoof of the Royal Wedding.

The prestigious awards, which entered their fifth year with headline sponsorship from NatWest, as well as accountancy firm Smith & Williamson and the web-based human resources service Xpert HR, were announced last night at a gala ceremony at The Marriott Hotel, in London’s Grosvenor Square.

Explaining the choice of winners, Growing Business editorial director and FGBA judge Ian Wallis said:

“Fast growth in business is borne of ambition, innovation – and sheer guts and determination. The quality of entrants for this year’s Fast Growth Business Awards was outstanding across the board and made the final selections more difficult than they have ever been.

“Asperity Employee Benefits was the deserving winner of the NatWest Fast Growth Business of the Year. In five years the company has gone from a standing start to owning around 20% of its market, grew turnover by 177% in the past year, and raised profits 218% in the same period. That offers some insight into the calibre of companies we were judging this year – businesses that may not be household names today, but are the drivers of the economy and the ones the government is relying on to cure the ills of the public purse.”

Seedcamp will be returning to Spain for the second year running to host our penultimate Mini Seedcamp for 2011 . We already have two great teams based there, Offset Options and Robot Media and are expecting to meet awesome start up talents, upon our return to the fabulous city of Barcelona on 16^th November 2011.

It would be great if you can join us as a mentor, please register here