Collider 2014

About

What is Collider?

Collider is an accelerator dedicated to startups which help brands identify, understand, engage with and ultimately sell to consumers. We invest in, coach, advise and connect our startups, helping them grow faster and increase in value.

We're currently fundraising for our third portfolio of 10 startups; we're going bigger and getting better. We're increasing the amount of equity investment on offer to startups and we're opening up part of the fund to the Seedrs community.

What does Collider invest in?

We invest in early-stage marketing and advertising tech startups. You can see the startups from our 2013 and 2014 cohorts here: http://collider.io/the-team/.

We look for startups with a high quality team of 2 or more people, a minimum viable product or better and a ground-breaking idea solving a painful problem.

We focus on this space because we believe Britain is the world-leader in this industry, with great brands and agencies based here and we have the technical expertise in this country to make it all happen. We're looking for the next big thing in a space that has yielded Exact Target ($2.5bn exit), Rocket Fuel ($942m IPO) and Marketo ($465m IPO).

What's this accelerator programme then?

Our programme is made up of a four-month intensive collision phase, with a further eight months' support for the top startups. During the programme we deliver workshops and one-on-ones on a range of subjects from customer proposition to fundraising. The key part of the programme is the direct work our startups do with brands (see below).

What sets Collider apart?

Our focus on this space means that Collider is precisely tailored to the needs of our startups. In particular, we have 12 partner brands who work closely with our startups, helping them to understand their customers' problems and position their businesses accordingly.

Who's delivering the magic?

Our three Partners are the key figures here. The Partners founded Collider two years ago and all have experience of building and selling companies:

• Rose Lewis is ex-Ziff Davis, which partly explains our focus on this sector, and ex-3i, which explains why she is rather brilliant at helping startups fundraise.
• David Prais was Director of Global Marketing at Gateway before setting up Chumbo.com, which he sold to AOL in 1999. Good timing, David.
• Andy Tait is Mr.KPI, King of Business Development; he got in early, grew and sat on the board of publicly-listed Superscape for many years.

The rest of the team have blue-chip backgrounds but have been lured in by the excitement of working with startups. They bring the organisation and discipline to keep this running smoothly.

Who am I investing alongside?

We're raising £1m, of which £333,300 will be raised through Seedrs. As for the rest, we're all about golden experience. We're focused on marketing and advertising tech so we work with investors from a marketing and advertising background, investors who are prepared to roll their sleeves up and help our startups with their experience and network. Our investors tend to have held senior roles at global brands or have built and sold their own agencies.

Previous investors include:

• Mark Sherrington - co-founder of the global agency Added Value which sold to WPP and investor in Brandtone and Clavis.
• Gabbi Cahane - investor and advisor to Brandid, 3 beards and co-founder branding agency Meanwhile.
• Frank Lampen & Shilen Patel - Co founders of Independents United and founders of Distill Ventures - Diageo backed drinks accelerator.
• Unilever Ventures - corporate venturing arm of Unilever.

We'd love it if you have knowledge of the industry but, of course, it's not essential. You're investing alongside some wise heads who know how to make a difference to our startups.

Why should I invest?

Because we have a track record to point to. Because with Collider, you get a ready-made portfolio of startups, supported by a highly tailored accelerator programme. Because you are investing alongside industry-leaders who are using their experience to help and guide the startups you have invested in.

Valuation calculated according to latest investment round per startup. Current post-money valuation / pre-money valuation at start of programme.

Example deals include:

• LivingLens are delivering two contracts for Unilever worth £265k.
• Sumo Insight has signed a deal worth £42k with a global brand.
• CampaignAmp has signed a contract worth £60k with a leading Music PR firm.

Performance

We're accelerating fast. We learned from our first programme and we're now working closer with more brands and better startups.

Many of our start-ups from Programme 1 went on to raise further funding. Examples include:

• Beem delivers organisations' need-to-know info straight to employees' smartphone in a beautiful app. Currently working with Unilever, BBC & Mindcandy. Invested in by GGM, a Luxembourg-based VC.
• Miappi pulls brands' social networks together in one place to give their audience a single, handsome view of what they are saying across multiple channels. Miappi has raised follow-on funding from Downing Ventures and a number of Collider investors.
• Avocarrot is a mobile ad network for app developers - presenting an entirely new breed of reward-based advertising. They attracted the interest from Google Entrepreneurs inviting them to attend their Blackbox accelerator in the valley. They have since raised further funding in the US.

What's the deal then?

By investing in this campaign, you are investing in the equity of each of the startups that will make up the Collider 2015 cohort. The investments will be made from the total £1m fund as follows:

• Round 1 - 10 startups will receive £50k for 11% (Jan 2015).
• Round 2 - 5 of the 10 startups will receive £100k for 11% (May 2015).

The minimum investment in this campaign is £100 meaning that if, for example, you invest £100, £50 of your investment would be invested equally across the 10 startups in Round 1, and then £50 of your investment would be invested equally across the top 5 startups in Round 2.

Investors' funds will be held in escrow by Seedrs until the 10 startups are selected, and then Seedrs acting as nominee will invest directly in each company in exchange for the equity. Seedrs will then hold your shares as nominee (in the same way that it does for all startups that raise money through its platform).

What else do I get?

• £1k gets you an invite to Collider's Demo Day.
• £5k gets you an invite to Collider's Big 3 events: Launch Party, Demo Day and The Collider MadTech summit.
• £10k gets you an invite to Collider's Big 3 events and an observer role at selection day.
• £27.7k gets you an invite to Collider's Big 3 events and an invite to Selection Day with half a vote on startup selection.
• £55.5k gets you an invite to Collider's Big 3 events and an invite to Selection Day with a full vote on startup selection.

How does Collider make money?

First things first, 100% of your investment goes to the startups. Collider pays the bills in two ways: charging startups and doing deals with brand partners.

We charge each startup £10k to take part in the four month programme. The five startups which are selected to receive £100k follow-on investment will pay £10k for a further 8 months of support. The fee for the programme in years one and two was £30k - we have reduced it to attract even better startups and because we can now afford to.

Now that we have a great track record to point to, brands are paying us for a more structured, tailored programme, giving them increased exposure to our startups; more speed-dating sessions, workshops and brand hackathons.