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UK web entrepreneurs launch $60m fund


Founding fathers of the digital media scene in Britain have teamed up to launch a new fund to invest in fledgling dotcom start-ups.

Bebo founder Michael Birch and Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com and Mydeco, have joined forces Peter dotcom newsDubens and Jonathan Goodwin, two venture capital big guns, to create the fund.

PROfounders Capital, as the fund will be known, says it aims to “be an active participant in early-stage ventures focused on the new business models of digital media and technology”.

Birch, who sold Bebo to AOL last year for a reported $850m, is said to be the ‘cornerstone’ investor in the fund which has already raised $30m. It plans to double that amount by bringing in new entrepreneurs.

PROfounders will not rely on money from institutions, but plans to follow the Silicon Valley model with experienced entrepreneurs investing in promising start-up businesses.

“Going back to 2000, we have a decent community of people in the UK who did make money in the internet and other media businesses,” Hoberman told the FT newspaper. "Those people do want to invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

The fund would focus on investments of between £500,000 and £1.5m, he added.

Institutional investors have become more risk averse since the credit crunch and several have shifted their investments to more established growing businesses with safer risk profiles.

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By News Desk  on   Jul 10,2009

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