lastminute.com team get second Spark in £5m round
The teams that founded and were founder investors in lastminute.com have renewed their partnership in what is billed as one of the largest internet seed rounds in Europe.
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SPARK Ventures, whose team was also a founder investor in the start-up of lastminute.com, has led the funding of mydeco.com in a £5m funding round. SPARK is the lead and largest investor in mydeco.com, an interior design website developed by the team behind lastminute.com. This is the second time the SPARK Ventures team has backed the management team behind mydeco.com, having formerly led the financing of lastminute.com, through NewMedia Investors, in 1998.
As part of the financing, SPARK brought together a syndicate of leading investors comprising venture capital, corporate investors and private individuals. These include Arts Alliance, a venture capital firm which also previously backed lastminute.com; Lord Rothschild’s family interests; Edward Atkin, founder of Cannon Avent; Marc Worth, founder of Worth Global Style Network; and Yoo Ltd, the property branding, design and investment company led by John Hitchcox and Philippe Starck.
Tom Teichman, chairman of SPARK Ventures, joined the board of mydeco as a non-executive director in early 2007 and has been involved in the development of the business ahead of its official launch this month (February). He commented: “The mydeco team is one of the most experienced and dynamic in Europe, with a proven track record of building market leading, sustainable online businesses. As longstanding investors in lastminute.com, we have a strong history of working with the team and that they decided to come back to us with this new venture is a strong endorsement of our successful collaboration. We see this as a great opportunity to work with them again and to building another world-class business.”
mydeco (www.mydeco.com) is a new website that claims it will transform the way consumers design and shop for their homes, just as lastminute.com transformed the travel industry, making it easy and enjoyable to furnish a home using the latest online technology. For the first time ever, mydeco brings together more than a 1,000,000 products from over 500 retailers in one place including Heal’s, Argos, John Lewis, The Conran Shop, Furniture Village, Graham and Green, OKA, Alessi, M&S, Andrew Martin and Lombok, making it simple for users to find what they are looking for without trawling the high street. The site will also feature easy-to-use 3D room-planning tools which show how real products will look in a room, enabling users to buy with confidence.
Founder and executive chairman Brent Hoberman says: "mydeco helps users to get more out of their home. The site empowers consumers by giving them unrivalled choice, design advice and unique room-planning tools. As a nation, we spend about £14 billion a year furnishing our homes – yet until now, the internet hasn’t been used to bring it all together and make the customer’s shopping experience easier and more enjoyable. mydeco gives users everything they need to shop wisely, stylishly and confidently, and importantly all in one place."
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© Chilli Publishing Ltd 2008 |
4 FEB 2008 |
