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OUR SUCCESSES
CAR CREDIBLE
Car Credible’s vision is to help users take back control of their car finance by identifying switching & saving opportunities.
By using data science and proprietary algorithms, the platform offers tailored advice on car finance deals. Car Credible help un-complicate the process and advise their clients on whether they have a good deal or are entitled to make changes during their agreement.
HOLIBOB
Providing a pioneering and independent B2B gateway for global tours and experiences, Holibob connects consumer facing travel and lifestyle brands to premium tour and activity providers. With a growing worldwide portfolio, Holibob offers a wide range of benefits to both operators and providers.
INCANTHERA
Four in ten cancer cases in the UK can be prevented according to the latest Cancer Research UK report*. Incanthera, a UK-based oncology therapeutics company, is developing a new cream, which treats and prevents skin cancer.
*cancerresearchuk.org/sites/default/files/state_of_the_nation_april_2019
HOLLABOX
With a mission to help people get the most out of their lives, Hollabox are helping their target audience (mainly Millennials, but they're not ageist!) to discover the best experiences around, through user generated video content.
We like to describe their platform as 'TripAdvisor on steroids' where anyone with a mobile phone can upload what they are experiencing, when they are experiencing it and share with everyone to avoid FOMO.
BORROW A BOAT
Worldwide boat charter has never been more accessible now that Borrow A Boat has sailed onto the horizon by offering a definitive marketplace featuring peer-to-peer listings. Setup in 2016 by boat enthusiasts, it is currently listing over 13,000 boats in around 50 countries and has just completed its latest fund raise.
JUST MOVE IN
They say that three of the most stressful things in life are divorce, job loss or moving home. We haven't found a company yet to help with the first two but Just Move In certainly ticks all the boxes when it comes to the third.
Just Move In describe themselves as a 'concierge service' taking away some of the tedious administration when it comes to moving home. Their ongoing support can save home owners up to eight hours of time & hundreds of pounds on their household bills.
MARQUEE ARTS
Described as 'Netflix' for the Arts, Marquee Arts is a subscription service allowing art lovers to enjoy dance, opera, theatre, music and documentaries from around the world from any tv, tablet or mobile device. With hundreds of hours of innovative productions and revered classics all quite literally at their finger tips everyone can indulge their 'Culture Crush'
SNAPPPT
There are many ventures providing excellent influencer databases but none that we know of, which reports the return on investment for specific brands, using specific influencers. SNPT does just that and is leading the way in Influencer Marketing. No less than 75,000 brands have signed up with SNPT during its first year of operation.
PSYT
Psychological Technologies (PSYT) designs apps to help people improve their wellbeing and gain awareness into the factors that affect them. The company uses innovative people analytics tools to help employees and employers gain confidential insights into the culture, wellbeing and engagement for their organisation.
Involved Investors were approached by the founder Directors of Psychological Technologies to advise on strategy for the fast track development of the company.
CURADO BAR
Curado is a revolutionary Tapas Bar concept with tables upstairs, serving traditional Spanish Jamon and Pintxos, along with iconic Spanish hot dishes, traditional wines, novel spirits & Artisan beers. Having proven hugely successful in its first location in Westgate Street, Cardiff there are plans to roll-out the concept to other UK high footfall locations.
Involved Investors have been working with the founder owners for over a decade and its Directors are proud to be partners in this new enterprise alongside leading Spanish brewers and food suppliers.
WESWAP SOCIAL CURRENCY
WeSwap is the new way to get travel money.
Rather than buying it from a bank or elsewhere, people in different countries swap with each other. WeSwap believes in simple, transparent pricing. They won’t quote 0% commission while hiding fees in a bad exchange spread. They don’t try and confuse with different buy and sell prices.
A WeSwap prepaid Mastercard makes it easy to withdraw or spend money wherever Mastercard is accepted. The WeSwap card ‘recognises’ which currency region you are in and will make payment in that currency.
Website | http://www.weswap.com
TAILS.COM
Tails.com is the latest venture conceived and developed by Graham Bosher, the founder and CEO of Graze.com and previously LOVEFiLM and is now run by James Davidson and an experienced team.
Tails.com is an online subscription service, providing pet owners with individually tailored food recipes for their dogs, according to each pets’ personal profile. Tails’ vet designed system creates an optimized menu and feeding plan for each dog, using uniquely blended dry foods.
These easy to use foods are delivered to the doorstep at an appointed time and regularity, saving the owners money, and more importantly improving the health and longevity of their best friends.
Tails.com was sold in April 2018 to Nestlé Purina PetCare for an undisclosed sum.
MONEYWEEK
MoneyWeek, the UKs best selling financial magazine with over 45,000 active subscribers and a reputation for independence, consumer focus and investment advice has been sold to Dennis Publishing.
Paul Daniels advised the Directors of MoneyWeek in the early stages of planning their successful exit strategy.
MONEY & CO
Money & Co was started by Nicola Horlick early 2014 as a crowd lending P2B business, enabling individuals seeking a better rate of interest on their cash to lend to companies that need to borrow to expand their businesses, thus replacing banks as a source of financing.
Peer to Business platforms have advantages. Loans can be approved within 72 hours of receiving the company’s application. Company’s can borrow for up to 5 years for one arrangement fee, with no costly annual renewals. There are no covenants but a debenture will be taken over the company’s assets. Loan agreements are just four pages and written in straightforward English.
Once a company’s loan is approved, a credit rating is attributed to it, providing guidance to Lenders. It is then auctioned on the Money & Co site.
Paul Daniels, a significant first stage investor, was invited to join the Board, and served as Chairman for a period.
ARCHITECTURAL PLANTS
When launched in 1990 by Angus White, Architectural Plants turned the traditional Nursery image upside down, to great acclaim by the British Press. Notable opinion leaders are amongst its many discerning and enthusiastic customers and the business was awarded the Queens Award to Enterprise in 2002.
The company has been relocated to a large campus at Brinsbury on the A29 near Pulborough, West Sussex and is now expanding rapidly under a very experienced CEO.
Paul Daniels has acted as a consultant to the Board of Architectural Plants Ltd.
BREWHOUSE & KITCHEN
Brewhouse & Kitchen is an established award winning Brew Pub Group with 18 freehold, leasehold and franchised Brew Pubs, operating a 'destination' concept with each pub having its own 'micro' brewery coupled with high quality locally sourced food offering.
Brewhouse & Kitchen was the first Brew Pub Chain to operate this concept in March 2013. The company is operated by an experienced and proven management team, with an established track record in building and selling pub businesses.
Involved Investors directors have worked closely with Brewhouse & Kitchen throughout their exciting journey.
3D SPACE
3D Space Ltd provides city centre dwellers with easy-to-access self-storage space on their doorsteps at a competitive price.
3D Space Ltd’s first unit was opened in Pimlico nearly 20 years ago and enjoys a high level of occupancy to the great benefit and convenience of local residents. 3D Space has recently undergone substantial expansion to take advantage of high demand from residents and businesses in the surrounding West End area of London. The Pimlico site has been expanded three times and a new completely separate storage centre opened nearby.
Paul Daniels & Marco Pieters were founding Directors and have been substantial shareholders of 3D Space since its inception over a decade ago. They work in close harmony with the Burnett family who are the other major shareholders and operators of the business.
VEGA-CHI
Vega-Chi is a European and US market leading electronic multilateral trading facility dedicated to fixed income and equity-linked over-the-counter traded products. Participants in the Vega-Chi system are buy-side institutional investors who aim to access liquidity and best prices directly from each other in an anonymous and efficient manner.
Following the success with its European convertible bond launch in February 2010, Vega-Chi added a high-yield electronic bond trading platform to its European offering in 2011.
In 2012 the company made a major step to launch the first high-yield electronic bond trading platform in the USA market.
Vega-Chi was acquired by Liquidnet the global institutional trading network, giving the company financial muscle and worldwide reach from its primary markets of USA and UK.
GRAZE.COM
Graze.com was the first healthy eating by post company, offering busy office workers the chance to have delicious food delivered straight to their desks. The boxes contain healthy, natural food; nuts, seeds & dried fruits, tasty crackers & olives, as well as some well deserved natural treats.
Graze was successfully launched in the United States during 2012 and is now the major conventionally retailed snack brand in the UK, as well as retaining its original successful e-retailing distribution network.
Paul Daniels and Marco Pieters are members of the Venture Partner Group of Octopus VC, who took a significant, early stake in the investment in Nature Delivered Ltd, the owning company of “Graze”. Paul Daniels was the Octopus Monitor to the Board for three years and additionally, was appointed by the Company to serve as Chairman of the Graze Food Advisory Board. The Graze business was sold to Carlyle, a major US and worldwide private equity group at the end of 2012, before finally becoming part of the Unilever Group in 2019.
IWEBGATE
iWebGate – was created to provide ground breaking next generation total security technology and best-practice interfacing network architecture.
The iWebGate Platform software was developed to enable organisations to supercharge their existing ICT systems through high speed remote access and secure private cloud services. The objective is to provide total security, reduce cost and complexity, boost efficiency and create new business opportunity.
Involved Investors’ partners acquired a significant stake in iWebgate. Marco Pieters joined the Board and Paul Daniels served as Non-Executive Chairman between July 2012 and August 2013.
ANGEL INVESTMENT NETWORK
Angel Investment Network makes over 60,000 connections between entrepreneurs and investors per annum and operates worldwide.
Entrepreneurs requiring anything from £10,000 to £10m are eligible to propose investment in their businesses on the Angel Investment Network.
Paul Daniels was Chairman of Angel Investment Network during the early years of its development.
ALVERN MEDIA
Alvern Media is the market leader in providing forecourt advertising campaigns through fuel nozzle advertising and door advertising on the entrances to forecourt convenience stores.
The Directors of Involved Investors in partnership with Octopus Venture Capital Trusts funded the acquisition of Alvern Media through their T4 Media company. The merger added benefits of scale and a greater presence in the Outdoor advertising sector.
T4 MEDIA
T4 Media provides compulsive advertising on car park and station ticket gates, which are filter points through which target travellers pass. This enables advertisers to address directly niche target audiences in a manner which physically stops them in the tracks and only allows them to proceed once they have seen the advertising.
The company was founded by Marco and Paul who developed it into a serious player in the Outdoor advertising sector and then sold a significant minority share to Octopus VC. The founders retired from the company, leaving their remaining shareholding in the hands of second generation management with plans to grow the business further.
SPACEOVER
Spaceover
Spaceover provided new generation modular accommodation in an efficient and easy to manage, indoor, off-site production facility. This gave the company considerable benefits over conventional building cost structures including uninterrupted production and no trade skills demarcation.
The company was awarded “Most Innovative Building of the Year” by the Evening Standard for its first four storey, thirteen home unit behind the Old Vic theatre in Waterloo, London, which was erected in 9 hours on an April Sunday.
Spaceover was sold to its management team 3 years after commencement with long term backing for future development.
PARKOVER
Parkover was created to design, develop and market additional car parking in airspace above ground level sites. The system involved the use of modular steel construction and was technically demountable, which enabled novel financing methods.
The extensive use of landscaping was influential in overcoming normal planning objections and the companys first deck was erected, with minimal disruption to existing essential car parking at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey.
Parkover was sold to the Clancy Group plc three years after its foundation and is now Clancy Docwra Parkover.
TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PRODUCTS
Traffic Management Products Ltd was formed by Marco Pieters and Paul Daniels to cater for a traffic market with unlimited demand for finite resources – roads and car parks – with the objective of assisting busy traffic managers to fulfill their challenging roles more safely and efficiently. Ranges of products were developed to enable off-street car park managers to ‘sign’ their car parks more effectively, move cars without intrusion or damage from an obstructive position, start flat batteries, etc., and this improved the flow, safety and efficiency of their space.
TMPs breakthrough product, however, was the now ubiquitous TMP Flecta, a replacement for the internally lit “keep left” bollard, which requires no electrical input, does not emit CO2 and yields on impact to avoid damage and high replacement cost. Its introduction to the market resulted in a change to the Traffic Signs Regulations and TMP have since gone on to design and manufacture the first Solar Powered Bollard in the UK.
Traffic Management Products was sold to Dewhurst plc at a high PE valuation and has since continued its growth path with very little staff changes (one of the principal objectives of the owners).
S DANIELS PLC
From small family canned food importers, through acquisition of Johnsons Juice Company and New Covent Garden Soup, Daniels is now part of the largest organic food company in the world, Hains Celestial and encompasses big brands like Hartley’s, Gales and Linda McCartney.
Paul Daniels joined the eponomous family owned canned food importing company in 1961. Shortly after, Daniels diversified into dried fruit, becoming one of the primary suppliers to the food industry and then developed additional trading divisions in coffee and confectionery. The company floated on the main listed London Stock Exchange in 1986 under Paul’s leadership and during the 90s acquired first Johnsons Fresh Orange Juice and then New Covent Garden Soup. The company trades under the name Hain-Daniels in Europe selling chilled, fresh, natural food with a turnover of £400m, which includes the premier foods, jams, spreads and jellies business acquired in 2012.
S Daniels was started by Sidney Daniels at the end of the second World War, shortly joined in partnership by Paul’s father, Don Daniels. Paul Daniels joined the business in 1961, was Sales & Marketing Director 1965-1973 and Chairman & Chief Executive from 1973-1985 and became non-executive Chairman in 1995. During his tenure Daniels acquired a number of independent food businesses, some of which were sold as focus moved from ambient foods to the chilled sector, with the acquisition of Johnsons and New Covent Garden Soup.