UK investors come together to back new platform

Launching today, JustInvesting is the UK’s first private equity exchange focusing on early-stage ventures.

The JustInvesting management team have announced £750,000 ($1.2 million) in seed funding by some of the UK’s most prominent investors including Robin Klein of The Accelerator Group and Index Ventures, Edward Wray, co-founder of Betfair, and a number of senior finance industry executives. JustInvesting is also backed by the £100m Angel CoFund, a Government backed fund investing in high growth early stage venture across the UK.

JustInvesting will enable professional investors to consolidate all aspects of the investment process into a single platform and provide online investor tools  to support the entire investment life cycle: from discovery, investment,  management, to exit. The platform will, at the same time, make it easier for companies to find access to growth capital.

JustInvesting CEO Paul McGuire said:

“We’re delighted to be supported by such a distinguished group of investors, and pleased that they share our vision. Early-stage companies are important engines for economic growth, but providing funding to large numbers of small businesses in an efficient way, and across borders, is a problem that has not yet been solved. The JustInvesting platform will underpin the transformation of this industry enabling professional investors, institutions, government and other industry players to make the transition to a dramatically more efficient economic model, to the benefit of entrepreneurs, investors and the economy.”

George Whitehead, Chairman of the Angel CoFund added:

“The Angel CoFund’s aims are to both support angel investing, and to get cash to good businesses who will be able use the additional money to truly scale up.  With JustInvesting we are delighted that the benefits are two-fold because it’s both a great business for us to invest in, as well as one that will have a really positive impact on angel investing.  The process of investing into early stage ventures is too often complex, fragmented and therefore restrictive to the development of the UK’s angel market. JustInvesting is going to provide a much-needed toolset for active angel investors and investment firms, and we expect it to be instrumental in building the market for small business capital.”