Investment star Jon Moulton is among those who backed the placing, at a 9.5 per cent discount to 1 April’s closing price. The funds will enable the AIM-quoted company to buy the www.SmallBusiness.co.uk website from a company controlled by Vitesse executive chairman Sara Williams and her husband and fellow Vitesse director Peter Williams at a price approved by the independent directors of Vitesse.

Shareholders Artemis Fund Managers and Chris Ingram have supported the placing. Sara and Peter Williams and fellow director Andrew Brode have together stumped up £170,000 to maintain their percentage holdings.

Vitesse, which owns this website and publishes Growth Company Investor, Business XL and What Investment among a range of business and investment publications and online products, says some of the placing proceeds will go to improve database operations and provide working capital. In February the company signalled a turnaround in the year to January from 2008-09’s £494,000 loss into ‘a small profit’ and now says business has been ‘profitable and ahead of budget’ in the first two months of 2010-11.

Shares in Vitesse Media, which have fluctuated between 16p and 9.2p over the past 12 months, now stand at 10.5p. That values the company at £2.7 million.