Campaign on Seedrs has target of £250,000 with aim of plugging ‘missing gap’ in start-up space
Venture partner Innovify is launching a campaign on equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs to support UK start-ups, the company has announced.
The business, which has twin headquarters in London and India, is turning to crowdfunding for the first time in an attempt to incubate 10 start-ups and address the “high failure rate” among fledgling British businesses.
Innovify was founded in 2011 and its focus is supporting entrepreneurs with valuable ideas and giving the necessary support to create a viable business. It is looking to help start-ups launch 100 products over the next 10 years – with a minimum 50% success rate.
Early stage businesses it has worked with so far include: Kwanji, Landbay, Converza, Heavenote, Flatchecker, Globr and AtMayfair.
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Prior to founding Innovify, Sailor worked on product and technology development at Microsoft, Nokia, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, Betfair and Visa.
He said that many entrepreneurs must face the reality of a high failure rate despite an “established start-up eco-system”.
“The problem is finding the right technical co-founder (i.e. Chief Technology Officer) with the appropriate skill-set and experience,” he continued.
“Most CTO’s don’t have wide skill sets and lack general product management expertise and agile and lean development practices. This results in the end product being expensive, not fit for purpose and, ultimately, failure and high losses.”
Seedrs CEO Jeff Lynn said Innovify “essentially plugs this missing gap” for start-ups.
“[It does this] by coming on board as a company’s CTO, enabling them to develop their minimum viable product, launch it to market and gain early traction at much lower cost,” he added.
“Their successes to-date are testament to the model and we’re honoured they’ve chosen Seedrs to crowdfund properly.”
Further reading: Crowdfunding campaign to raise money for Nepal shelters
