The Big App Fund

About

Overview

After the success of our Foundation Fund earlier this year, Worth is launching a new App fund in partnership with Facebook. Our new fund will invest in three businesses which come top in a pan-European business competition, The Big App 2014. The £350k fund will be called The Big App Fund I.

The competition aims to discover Europe's best App Entrepreneurs. Facebook is supporting the competition with a major, pan-European advertising campaign for six weeks, in tandem with a big PR push to national and international media.

It is anticipated that significant numbers of app businesses and developers will enter, and the best 50 will go to the Big App Pitch Day at Facebook HQ on 27th October 2014. From there we will choose the best 10, who will enter a final judging event in London on 17th November 2014. To help us, we have assembled a stellar judging panel from the App and investment world, which so far includes:

• Jeff Lynn, Co-Founder of Seedrs
• Ted Nash, Co-Founder of Tapdaq
• Aman Ghei, Strategic Partner EMEA, Facebook and ex-Board Advisor / Investor at Supercell
• Adam Harrison, Head of Partner Marketing EMEA, Facebook
• Alex Johns, Partner, Worth Capital
• Paul Ephremsen, Partner, Worth Capital

The result of the judging will be one winner and two runners up. The winner will receive £150k and the runners-up £100k each, for stakes to be determined at the time of the investment. Each winning business will also receive a significant package of support from Facebook and Worth. In the event that we overfund, we will either choose one or two more runners-up or increase the funding in the original three businesses.

Please note: the top 20 Seedrs investors will be invited to the Pitch Day, and three Seedrs investors (the top two investors plus one drawn at random) will receive VIP passes to Finals Day at Facebook HQ.

This is a ground breaking moment for us as Facebook's support takes this to the next level and presents you as investors with an unprecedented opportunity to invest in the very best app businesses in Europe.

We strongly believe that our first Big App Fund will have a significant chance of success for the following reasons:

1. The investments will be chosen by a group of well-known entrepreneurs with huge success under their belts.
2. The search for the final shortlist will come via a European-wide (plus Israel) search with unprecedented media coverage.
3. The companies will receive focused business mentoring from a group of experts - which will turbo charge their path to success.
4. The three winning companies will receive significant support and coverage from Facebook, which will help put their businesses in front of the public and their potential customers.

What is worth?

Worth Capital was founded by the team who set up the Consumer Engagement Group, a £20m turnover marketing services group established in 1994. The Big App 2014 is the second major business competition run by Worth. Our major business competitions, which are linked with crowd-funded funds are the most effective way of unearthing the best businesses of tomorrow. We also provide the winners with ongoing advice and mentoring support to help them to grow much faster.

What have we achieved so far?

The partnership with Facebook is confirmed and will give us unrivalled exposure to the app ecosystem.

We have jointly agreed detailed online and offline media plans to enable us to reach app developers and businesses across the whole of Europe and Israel.

The competition timetable has been agreed:
1st September 2014 - The Big App competition launches on Facebook. Simultaneously the Big App Fund launches on Seedrs.
27th October 2014 - Top 50 Big App entrants attend Pitch Day at Facebook HQ, London. Each will have 5 minutes to impress one of our judging team, with the aim of progressing to Finals Day.
17th November 2014 - The Big App 2014 Finals Day at Facebook HQ, London

The market

The Mobile App market is exploding:

• Consumer access to apps is growing at pace. Globally 1.24 billion mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) were sold in 2013. This number is predicted to increase to 2.14 billion devices sold by 2017. Portio Research predicts that by 2017 there will be 4.4 billion mobile app users.
• There have been 75 billion app downloads on Apple's App Store alone. Gartner believe in total there will be 309.6 billion app downloads by 2016.
• 80% of a consumer's time on mobile is spent using apps. This adds up to 140 billion minutes per month globally.
• Amongst the top 100 grossing apps, 81% of iOS and 70% of android apps are now integrated with Facebook.
• The investment market is following the money. In 2013, Venture Capital invested $3.5bn in mobile businesses.

Investment strategy

The Fund will invest in the three winning businesses chosen by the judging panel.

We anticipate the Fund will receive between 10% and 30% equity in each business, subject to each business's current performance and potential. So you, as an investor in the Fund will receive a direct proportion of the Fund's investment.

With a £350k raise, we plan to invest the proceeds as follows:

• £150k in the winning business in return for an anticipated equity stake of 20% to 30%; and
• £100k in each of the two runners up, in return for an anticipated equity stake of 10% to 30% in each business.

Please note that the actual equity stake received may differ depending on the type and maturity of the relevant business.

Worth Capital will take an option of 7% in each invested business. Each business the Fund invests in will receive on-going mentoring from a Worth Mentor, with the focus tailored to their specific needs to reach a valuable exit.

We cannot guarantee that the winning businesses will be EIS or SEIS eligible (on the basis that this is a pan-European competition) and therefore this campaign has not been labelled as such. However, in the event that any of the winning businesses are EIS or SEIS eligible then any investor in this campaign will receive the benefits of such tax relief provided that they are themselves eligible to claim the relief in the usual way.

Fund management

The fund will be investing in more than one company, and as a result the minimum investment in this fund is £100, and multiples thereof. The Worth team will inform the Fund's manager, Seedrs Limited ("Seedrs") as to who the winning businesses are. Seedrs will be holding the funds in escrow until the team provides the relevant investment recommendation, and Seedrs will act on such recommendation subject to their strict legal due diligence process. Seedrs will make the investment into the relevant business, and will hold and manage such investment as nominee for the investors in the funds. Seedrs is an FCA-authorised firm that manages a wide range of investments in early-stage businesses.