Lush co-founder Andrew Gerrie plans to float a new shell on the Aquis Stock Exchange. The plan is for Silverwood Brands to acquire and develop consumer brands. This could be established brands or newer ventures.
The strategy is to use shares and cash to acquire significant stakes in companies and build up a portfolio of brands in the food, wellness, lifestyle and leisure stakes. Silverwood Brands would then use its expertise to improve efficiency and marketing. The company will take a long-term view in developing the brands.
Hotel Chocolat (LON: HOTC) founder Angus Thirlwell will be an adviser...
The FTSE 100 fell on Monday following a disappointing set of economic data from China.
Chinese GDP growth fell to 4.9% year-on-year in the third quarter whilst Industrial Production fell to 3.1%, well below the 4.5% estimated by analysts.
“The FTSE 100 dipped on Monday, losing some of its recent momentum as China’s GDP figures for the third quarter disappointed,” says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
Mould also highlighted the factors driving the weaker economy in China in supply chain problems and power issues similar to those be experienced in many other economies around the world.
“The problems facing the Chinese economy are familiar ones of supply chain issues and power shortages,” said Mould.
Miners managed to surprisingly shrug off the poor Chinese data and the top FTSE 100 faller was International Consolidated Airlines, down 3.5%, as investor continued to fret over the strength of post-pandemic travel.
Despite the FTSE 100 giving up ground on Monday, the declines in London were not as damaging as those observed in Europe.
The German DAX and French CAC were both down over 0.5%.
The UK Investor Magazine Podcast has the pleasure of presenting Marcus Love, a Partner at VC Love Ventures.
Love Ventures operate an EIS Fund that focuses on UK PropTech and FinTech companies.
We start by exploring the history of the fund and the founders who have a strong background in Angel Investing having backed some of the UK’s most successful FinTech companies of recent years including Revolut, which is now the UK’s highest valued private company.
Their early success led to the establishment of Love Ventures and a portfolio of UK FinTech and PropTech companies for their Love Ventures EIS Fund I.
There is consideration paid to the key themes they see opportunity in and the tax benefits available to High Net Worth Individuals and Sophisticated Investors.
Castillo Copper has begun drilling at it’s Arya copper prospect located in Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia.
There was a significant effort to ensure the drilling campaign commenced after the rig and other equipment has to be airlifted to the site.
The drill campaign is targeted three zones first identified by BHP in the mid-1990s and will drill five holes in the initial ‘proof of concept’ tests.
Castillo Copper shares rose 1.1% following the announcement.
Simon Paull, Managing Director of Castillo Copper, commented:
“We are delighted to have commenced drilling at our Arya prospect. Of the 22 targets that we have across the tenure in the Mt Isa region, the Arya Copper Prospect has generated the most intrigue and interest among stakeholders. The geochemistry and geophysical evidence have all provided compelling evidence the three targets are potentially among the best within our tenure. As such, the Board optimistically looks forward to the initial observations as the campaign progresses.”
South America-focused oil and gas firm President Energy (LON:PPC) is on course to spin off the UK-registered subsidiary Atome, which is focused on hydrogen and ammonia production and sales.
AIM-quoted President has interests in Argentina, the US and Paraguay. It generates revenues from Argentina and Louisiana
At the interim stage, revenues rose by one-quarter to $17.1m, even though production fell by 2% to 2,648 barrels/day. Cash was generated, although net debt increased was $16.7m at the end of June 2021. The majority of debt is owed to a company owned by President executive chairman Peter L...
Light Science Technologies is a contract electronics manufacturer and a developer of controlled environment agriculture technology. The latter is yet to generate revenues and the loss it makes is much higher than the profit from the contract electronics manufacture.
The agricultural technology helps farmers to maximise crop productivity and monitor the growing environment. Management says that there is already a strong pipeline of potential orders for the agricultural technology, but it is yet to become commercial.
The cash raised in the flotation will be used to expand facilities and increase...
A strategic review by the board of Gresham House Strategic (LON: GHS) has led to a decision to change the manager of the smaller company investment firm and the incumbent Gresham House (LON: GHE) is not happy, even though it requested the review.
The strategic review led to six proposals and the decision to drop Gresham House and change to Harwood Capital, where the company’s former investment manager Richard Staveley moved earlier this year. Harwood has agreed to reduce the management fee and the investment company’s directors believe that this will save £270,000 a year – based on the current...
Bitcoin has smashed through $60,000 and towards it’s all time high of $64,000.
The rally in Bitcoin was met with excitement across financial Twitter accounts as the prospect of fresh highs further fuels interest in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin traders and investors have faced a volatile month with high profile criticism of crypto causing declines that were bought into by investors.
The news that Bitcoin futures ETFs will go live in the US has been attributed to the recent rally and the SEC has warned investors of the potential risks.
Before investing in a fund that holds Bitcoin futures contracts, make sure you carefully weigh the potential risks and benefits.
"There's a possibility a lot of people feel that you can get a short-term peak, or maybe a real peak as people just run ahead of the ETFs," says @jimcramer on a #Bitcoin ETF approval. "I might cash out half my $ETH." pic.twitter.com/48MJP047yK
A study has found 33% of UK investors have suffered a decline in their portfolios, meaning the remaining 66% had either experienced their portfolios increasing or staying the same.
The survey by Butterfields also found 44% were optimistic about the 12 month outlook for their portfolios.
The study also provided insight into the activity of UK investors and revealed 37% of investors held back on any action during the pandemic.
The pandemic meant investors had more time to pay attention to their portfolios and many investment platforms experienced a huge spike in the number of new accounts being opened.
Alpa Bhakta, CEO of Butterfield’s UK-based mortgage operations, said: “Navigating the turbulent economic landscape during the pandemic has been a challenge for investors. The option for many has been to pause on making major investment decisions, or to adopt a more risk-averse financial strategy. Clearly, however, it has not stopped a significant number of investors from being hit financially by Covid-19.
“It is positive to note that the number of optimistic investors more than doubles those lacking confidence. With interest rates remaining at record lows and the UK government’s economic policies evolving all the time, it will be interesting to see how investors now adapt their strategies in the months to come and which assets or markets attract the most attention.”
CarCloud was born out of a deep frustration shared by founders Paul Jewell and Geoff Turral. With over 50 years experience between them, on both the customer and manufacturer sides of the industry, they became increasingly frustrated that, as the world has moved rapidly to mobile, customer-centred solutions, the options for car ownership remain rooted in the 20th century.
CarCloud is a free to download app that enables the UK’s 33 million drivers to manage their second highest monthly spend on their phones, just like they can for virtually every aspect of their lives.
Our customer mission is simple. To help drivers save time, money, reduce stress and the environmental impact of car ownership.
How Does It Work?
Customers download CarCloud for free from Google Play and Apple’s App Store.
You enter your car’s registration, CarCloud retrieves your vehicle data and securely stores it on the cloud.
From then, 3 things happen.
You receive ‘stay legal’ reminders to ensure you never miss a key date. (7.1M UK drivers missed their MOTs by an average of three weeks during 2020)
You can easily upload car documents and paperwork to be securely stored on the cloud and always accessible when you need them with one tap of your screen.
CarCloud takes time, cost and hassle out of buying those services we have to by manage our cars
How does the revenue model work?
We don’t take advertising, we don’t sell customer data – we make revenue when our customers save time and money.
Customers download CarCloud to take time and stress out of car ownership. But, once they’re on CarCloud we have a lot of car and personal data. With their permission, we use it to pre-populate those tiresome, repetitive forms, taking chunks of time out of the process. By taking time and hassle out, we put the customer in a position of strength to make informed decisions.
Revenue Streams
There are 4 revenue streams – 3 consumer and 1 B2B
Insurance commission – applicable to 100% of customers, with a 12 month cycle (Live)
Finance commission – 89.5% of cars are financed, with an average 27 month change cycle. (Dec 2021)
CarCloud MultiCar – premium app upgrade subscription revenue. You can store up to 3 cars on the free CarCloud app. MultiCar allows customers to store 4-10 cars and targets families, enthusiasts and small businesses. (Dec 2021)
CarCloud’s B2B compliance platform – SaaS monthly recurring subscription revenue. for the 90% of business journeys that are undertaken in the employee’s personal car (March 2022)
Customer Acquisition
CarCloud acquires customers through 3 validated digital channels;-
Digital content and display – regional and local
Paid & organic social media – national
Interactive media partnership – Reach Plc – regional, national and local
We are targeting 111,000 users by December 2022 and 1.15M by December 2026, at an average cost per account set-up of £2.93 per user.
CarCloud’s key point of marketing difference is that we do not compete for customers at the (very expensive) point of sale. Customers join the platform as a life-hack, to get looked after and reduce the headaches that come with managing your cars.
The Investment Proposition
CarCloud is raising on Seedrs. We hit our investment target 48 hours after launching, and we’re now overfunding prior to closing the campaign out. We are targeting 7-12X return for investors in this round, in 4-6 years with a planned exit via a trade sale.
Click here to take a closer look at the CarCloud business and investment proposition.
