Our Investments (rollover logo to view details)
Moves
Moves app is a new way to track how much physical exercise you get – just by keeping a phone in your pocket. The app automatically recognizes activities, routes and places; visualizes the data on a map and as a daily storyline that encourage the user to take small steps towards fitness and losing weight. It is also a neat way to log and share your everyday life.
Moves, based in Helsinki, London and Pittsburgh, is backed by Lifeline Venture, PROfounders Capital and angel investors.
busuu
busuu.com is Europe’s largest online community for learning languages. The website was launched in May 2008 and by September 2012 it had reached over 20,000,000 users from over 200 different countries. The users can access audio-visual language courses in currently 12 languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Polish, Arabic, Japanese and Chinese).
busuu, founded in Madrid and now based in London, is backed by angel investors such as Martin Varsavsky and PROfounders Capital.
Blink Booking
Blink is a mobile application that offers European travellers the best nightly deals at handpicked four- and five-star hotels in 40 cities.
Blink Booking, based in London and Madrid, is backed by SoftTech Ventures, various angels, and PROfounders Capital.
GetYourGuide
GetYourGuide is a booking platform for tours, attractions and activities. Customers can search and book travel experiences in destinations around the world ranging from bus sightseeing tours in London to shark-diving in Cape Town. GetYourGuide acts as a marketplace where professional suppliers can upload and manage their products using a content management system, and receive bookings and payments via a booking engine.
GetYourGuide, based in Germany and Switzerland, is backed by Spark Capital, Highland Capital, and PROfounders Capital.
CruiseWise
CruiseWise brings wisdom and simplicity to cruise bookings. CruiseWise combines innovative technology with in-house cruise experts to radically improve the way users plan and book their next cruise vacation.
CruiseWise, based in San Francisco, is backed by PROfounders Capital, NEA, and Index Ventures.
easyCar
easyCar The Car Club provides a car sharing marketplace that employs a peer-to-peer model. Car owners can rent their cars to a community of trusted drivers by the hour, day, or week using just their smartphones.
easyCar The Car Club was founded by Sir Stelios Haji-loannou, the founder of EasyJet, and PROfounders Capital.
Lulu
Lulu is a mobile social and communications platform dedicated to young women and their best friends.
Luluvise is backed by Passion Capital, PROfounders Capital, and angel investors.
Leap Motion
Leap Motion, based in San Francisco, is developing powerful and affordable motion control technology.
Leap Motion is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Highland Capital, and PROfounders Capital.
Lanyrd
Lanyrd is a directory of conferences, events and speakers. Visitors can sign in with Twitter to see events their friends are attending or speaking at, submit new events, add talks that they have given and build up their speaker profile.
Lanyrd, based in London, is backed by PROfounders Capital, Index Ventures Seed, Silicon Angel, and DST.
Lofty.com
Lofty.com is a global marketplace for amazing places to stay. The business was founded by serial entrepreneur Fabrice Grinda, founder of OLX.
In February 2012, Lofty was acquired by Roomorama.
Echoecho
Echoecho is the simple location-based mobile application for finding friends in the real world. In just two clicks you can find your friend’s current location, while sharing yours. Users are in control of what they share, when they share it, and with whom they share it. The service works anywhere in the world across multiple platforms including Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and Nokia.
Echoecho, based in California, is backed by PROfounders Capital and Google Ventures.
9flats
9flats is a marketplace for private accomodation that allows visitors to rent rooms or apartments directly from locals. The business, based in Berlin and Hamburg, is founded by Stephan Uhrenbacher, a former Lastminute.com exeutive and also founder of Qype, the leading European reviews site for bars and restuarants.
9flats is backed by eVenture Capital Partners and T-Ventures from Germany, Redpoint Capital and Greycroft Partners from the US, and PROfounders Capital.
onefinestay
onefinestay is pioneering the "unhotel" by redefining the experience of visiting a city: live like a local by staying in a distinctive home while the owner is out of town, with all the conveniences and comforts of a hotel.
onefinestay is backed by PROfounders Capital, Index Ventures, and Canaan Partners.
Applifier
Applifier, based in Finland, is the world's largest cross-promotion network for social games. The company reaches over 55 million monthly active users and works with over 100 social applications. Applifier was founded by Jussi Laakkonen, Pekka Aakko, Jalmari Raippalinna and Matti Savolainen.
Applifier is backed by MHS Capital from San Francisco, PROfounders Capital, TEKES from Finland, and Lifeline Ventures from Finland.
CitySocialising
CitySocialising is a subscription-based social network that lets members find local and likeminded people to socialise with in the real world. CitySocialising is focusing on “Online2Offline” socialising around interests and events locally as a way to meet new people. Founded in January 2007 by ex-BBC producer Sanchita Saha and with R&D funding from The Prince’s Trust, the London-based startup now reaches 50 cities across the UK. The company delivers more than 600 group ‘socials’ every month across the country organised and hosted by users and by local Community Managers.
Mangahigh
Mangahigh is a games-based learning site focusing on maths for secondary school students. Free for schools and students, Mangahigh features high quality games that emphasize rapid-fire learning of different maths techniques. Mangahigh was founded by Toby Rowland, co-founder of both King.com and Clickmango.com.
Mangahigh is backed by PROfounders Capital and Revolution Learning Ventures out of the US.
Made.com
Made.com brings high quality, high end, made-to-order furniture, at low prices, to the UK market. Products are sent directly from the manufacturer to the consumer, cutting out any middlemen. Also, items are available only online, keeping prices 60-80% lower than traditional retail stores.
Made.com is backed by PROfounders Capital, Level Equity, Jaina Capital (formed by Meetic founder Mark Simoncini), and John Hunt, founder of Seattle Coffee Company and Obongo.
Keynoir
Keynoir is an exclusive buying club that gives its members access to a great lifestyle packed with indulgent and fun experiences in major cities around the world. The founders and former senior executives of Kelkoo, Lastminute.com, Bebo and Yahoo are behind Keynoir.
Keynoir was acquired by Time Out in November 2011. Keynoir, founded in 2010, was backed by PROfounders Capital, Index Ventures, and angel investors from the US and Europe.
TweetDeck
TweetDeck builds mobile and desktop applications to help people manage and make meaning from the real time web, including Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and LinkedIn. TweetDeck allows users to extract meaning from the firehose of real time data overwhelming them.
The company was founded by Iain Dodsworth in 2009.
TweetDeck was acquired by Twitter in May 2011. The company was backed by PROfounders Capital, Betaworks, TAG, and angel investors from the US and Europe.
Our Network (rollover logo to view details)
Toptable
Founded in 2000 by Karen Hanton, toptable.com is one of Europe’s largest online dining communities and restaurant booking services. toptable.com provides a free and easy-to-use service, allowing diners to browse and book at more than 5,000 restaurants across the United Kingdom and throughout Europe. Nearly three million diners are seated at restaurants each year through reservations booked via toptable.com.
In 2010, Toptable was sold to OpenTable for $55m.
ActiveHotels
Active Hotels was founded in 1999 by Andy Phillipps with a vision of being a leading online reservation provider to the hotel industry.
In 2004 the company was sold to Priceline.com for £90 million and continues to be one of Europe’s leading online reservation partners selling over 2 million hotel room nights per year.
QXL / Tradus
QXL, now rebranded Tradus, is an online auction company that operates in Europe. The company was sold to South African media group Naspers in March 2008 for £946m. It operates across Europe using many different brands. Its flagship Allegro is the most popular auction site in Poland.
Datamonitor
Datamonitor is the world’s leading provider of online data, analytic and forecasting platforms for key vertical sectors. Established by Mike Danson in 1989, Datamonitor currently employs 1,500 people and sells into 6,000 of the world’s largest companies. Research covers six major industry sectors: automotive and logistics; consumer and retail; energy and utilities; financial services; healthcare and technology.
Datamonitor was sold to Informa for £502m in 2007.
bebo
Founded by husband and wife Michael and Xochi Birch in July 2005, Bebo is a popular social networking website. Bebo has steadily risen to become one of the world's most popular social networking sites. Users can create profiles on the site for free, stay connected with friends, watch videos, and listen to music. In early 2008 Bebo had over 34 million registered users and 7 billion monthly page views. Bebo was acquired by AOL in March 2008 for $850 million.
mydeco
mydeco was founded by the management team behind lastminute.com, one of Europe's most successful ever online businesses. mydeco.com brings together more than 3 million home ware products, from 1500 retailers. From high end to high street, mass market to niche, mydeco makes it easier to find what you are looking for without having to trawl the high street. The site features the latest technology innovations to help you find inspiration, create a space, share ideas and shop for your home.
Lastminute.com
Founded by Brent Hoberman, lastminute.com is the most popular travel and leisure site in the UK with around 2.5 million people logging on every week to find the best travel deals. In addition, the company is the largest retailer of West End theatre tickets, selling one in ten of every seat sold, which equates to more than 1.5 million tickets every single year. The business also sells hotel rooms from a staggering 80,000 properties worldwide and flights from across 300 airlines. lastminute.com sends over 750,000 people on package holidays each year. The company was taken public in 2000 and sold to Sabre for $1.1 billion in 2005.
Pipex
Pipex was the UK's first commercial ISP and has over 17 years' experience in delivering Internet services to small businesses. Now forming part of Opal and the TalkTalk Group, Pipex offers users a fast, reliable connection, excellent UK based customer support, and unrivalled expertise.
365 Media
365 Media Group, formerly led by Peter Dubens, runs a network of sports news and content websites, including TEAMtalk, Football365, sportinglife.com and Sportal, attracting twelve million users per month. The company is also involved in content syndication to other media owners and mobile network operators. The business was sold to Sky for £96 million in Dec 2006.
Birthday Alarm
Birthday Alarm was started in 2001 by Michael and Xochi Birch and Paul Birch to provide a simple way for people to remember birthdays. Today, the business has over 50 million users. The original idea for the website was simple, remind people of birthdays, and today has evolved into a more comprehensive service.