This evening seminar examines what kinds of investment are available to new media ventures during an economic downturn, and offers advice on how to plan your company's funding strategy.

Stephen Upstone, Director at FirstStage Capital, will give an overview of the current market for raising capital, the different sources of equity finance and what investors are looking for.

Following Stephen's overview, Chris Allner, Investment Director at Proven Private Equity, and Martin Heath, successful entrepreneur and business angel investor, will draw on their personal experience growing successful media businesses, outlining the benefits of raising capital, the success factors and some of the pitfalls.

The discussion is followed by a wine reception sponsored by UK Online for Business (www.ukonlineforbusiness.gov.uk) and London Business Link (www.bl4london.com).

Speakers

Martin Heath
Martin is a successful entrepreneur and business angel investor, who has had success in a range of different businesses but always with the same objective; building companies valued on their intellectual copyrights. His businesses have ranged from the record industry, software, the games business, music publishing and television. He has had broad experience from start up stage, to buying and building companies, through to managing companies inside media corporations. His modus operandi has been consistent: spotting new opportunities in media or technology niches, building or buying a company to exploit the opportunity, proving the revenue streams, and trade selling.

Martin’s high-profile successes include the founding of leading independent record company Rhythm King, the establishment in 1990 of games company Renegade Software, and the founding in 1994 of innovative digital media agency Perfect World. In 1999, Martin co-founded Worldpop with Peter Powell, a cross platform media company targeting the teen audience.

Stephen Upstone, Director, FirstStage Capital
Stephen Upstone has responsibility for deal origination at FirstStage Capital, a corporate finance house that specialises in securing funding for early stage technology companies. Stephen focuses on raising funding for technologies employed in the media and marketing sectors. Prior to FirstStage Capital, Stephen worked for brand and media consultancy Michaelides and Bednash, where he was involved in developing brand strategy for beeb.com and beeb.net. Previously, Stephen worked in advertising for McCann-Erickson and Lowe Howard-Spink. www.firststagecapital.com

Chris Allner, Investment Director, Proven Private Equity
Chris joined ProVen London as Investment Director in 2001 responsible for sourcing, completing and monitoring equity investments. He was educated at Oxford University where he gained an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and has over 18 years experience in the VC/Private Equity market. Prior to joining ProVen, Chris was a Director of Bridgepoint Capital (formerly NatWest Equity Partners) where he was more recently responsible for the Southern regional office, previously being an Investment Manager with Charterhouse Development Capital and having commenced his career in venture capital with 3i. ProVen specialises in investing long-term private equity in established, small to medium sized businesses with good growth prospects. It has particular expertise in media, brands and enabling technologies.

Produced in association with:

FirstStage Capital is a corporate finance house that specialises in securing funding for early stage technology companies. The company designs fund raising strategies, identifying the most appropriate investors from venture capital, corporate venturing and business angel sources. Their focus is on businesses which own intellectual property in the IT or communications markets seeking seed or first round funding of £250,000 to £5,000,000.

Presented in association with