Diary of a Crowdfunder: Crowdfunding the medicines of the future March 11, 2015 Venomtech’s Steve Trim explains why he’s looking to raise £350,000 on SyndicateRoom. While working as a drug discovery scientist at a pharmaceutical company in 2009, an idea was brewing in my mind concerning a problem I was facing. The problem was how to make new drugs to cure pain which had fewer side-effects and worked [...]
Budget 2015: Current pensioners could sell their annuities for cash under new rules March 11, 2015 Current pensioners might be able to sell their annuities for cash under new plans due to be discussed by senior government ministers on Friday. According to the FT, if the proposals go ahead retirees would be allowed to sell their annual income contracts to insurers on secondary markets. In return, they would receive a cash [...]
Here’s why chancellor George Osborne’s pensioner bond bonanza won’t translate into votes March 11, 2015 George Osborne's so-called "granny bond" scheme has been heavily criticised as a blatant bid for the older vote, however new research has shown the chancellor's expensive giveaway is unlikely to pay off for the Tories. Rate setters at the Bank of England have held the main interest rate at a record low 0.5 per cent [...]
Private equity executive Randy Work ordered to make £72m divorce payout to ex-wife Mandy Gray by top London court March 10, 2015 A former private equity exec has been ordered to pay his ex-wife £72m – much more than he'd been offering. Randy Work, a former exec at Lone Star, said his estranged wife Mandy Gray should receive just £5m ($7.5m) of his wealth. He said his £150m ($225m) pot was protected by a post-nuptial agreement originally signed in Texas. [...]
MPs want pensions watchdog to protect retirees from themselves March 9, 2015 Pensioners need a tough new regulator to protect them from making bad decisions with their savings, an influential group of MPs said today. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is not sufficiently focused on pensions, and so a new single regulator is needed, MPs on the Work and Pensions Select Committee said. They called for the next government [...]
Former Dyson boss Martin McCourt to advise VentureFounders March 9, 2015 Montagu Private Equity director and former chief executive of Dyson Martin McCourt will act as a senior advisor to VentureFounders – a UK-based equity crowdfunding platform. McCourt brings with him more than 35 years’ experience in manufacturing, design marketing having spent time at Mars, Duracell and Toshiba. He spent 15 years at Dyson. He is also [...]
Britain’s quiet FinTech revolution has begun – and we’re determined to back it March 9, 2015 Whisper it, but there is a quiet revolution going on in British banking. If you don’t work in the financial world, you may never even have heard of the UK’s burgeoning financial technology or “fintech” sector. And you almost certainly won’t know about the opportunities it offers. So what is fintech? For me, it is [...]
Born in a barn, peer-to-peer lender Zopa is about to break £1bn in loans March 7, 2015 Peer-to-peer (P2P) is all the rage, with companies like TransferWise now all but household names and the descriptively named Lending Club, the largest US P2P company, recently becoming the first to IPO. What isn’t so well known is that Zopa, one of the peer-to-peer innovators, was founded in a barn, helping to spawn an [...]
City PM partners with Crowdnetic to launch crowdfunding site CityAMCrowdwatch.com March 5, 2015 City PM has partnered with Crowdnetic for the launch of its suite of UK crowd finance data. It features information on private UK-based companies publicly raising capital online through securitiesbased crowdfunding portals. Through CityAMCrowdwatch.com, investors can track a comprehensive listing of UK private offerings from leading platforms including Property Moose, Angels Den, Crowd for Angels, Fireflock, [...]
5 Investment picks March 4, 2015 Blue Crow Media The creator of city guides for the discerning customer has turned to the crowd to fund a series of curated lifestyle apps, maps and books to show what London has to offer. It’s raised 65 per cent of the £37,502 it needs, and is offering 3 per cent equity. 32 days left [...]
