RISINGSTARS-BACKED GROUNDBREAKING NEWS SERVICE LAUNCHES
3 March 2009
"What interests each of us is intensely personal", says Mike Wheatley, the CEO of Ensembli, a Sheffield-based company that has recently received further backing from funds managed by Enterprise Ventures ("EV").
"Each internet user will be interested in a wide and diverse range of topics - from politics to people, science to sports - and within each topic, each and every user will have very specific and developing interested, personal to them alone, a need for tailored information which is not currently met by current serach engines". And it is this problem that Ensembli has set out to fix.
The investor group, led by EV's RisingStars Growth Fund II ("RGSF II"), has just completed a further funding round in the company, taking the total investment in the company to £850,000.
Ensembli will be launching its service to the public at the biannual start up fest, Demo09, held in the US.
The story started when Ensembli Board member, Cark Rahn-Griffith came up with the idea to start a service for software businesses and approached the technology investment team at EV with his initial ideas.
"Starting a really ambitious business from scratch needs investors who will get involved and help, just as much as it needs their capital", said Carl. "Not only did the team at EV see the potential, they helped focus the business on other issues such as helping to identify the key individuals the company needed to build the right team".
Ed French, Investment Director at EV, who also represents RSGF II on the Ensembli Board, picks up the story: "Carl's vision hadn't resonated with investors who we looking for ways to de-risk his plan. We took the view that, with help, we could point the company to a much more general challenge of matching people's interests to the news they wanted to hear from the millions of stories floating around the internet".
Starting with initial pre-revenue funding of under £100,000, the first step was to recruit a technical director to develop a prototype in order to demonstrate the potential of the concept. "We were deeply impressed with what the team had acheived quickly and at a modest cost", said Ed. "Although somewhat basic, there was clearly the scope to tackle the challenge. We decided to back the company further and also help build the rest of the team".
Mike Wheatley, the CEO of Ensembli explains what happened next, "I heard about Ensembli and, I have to admit, was initially sceptical. Having been involved in internet and software businesses for some years, I was well aware of the many failed attempts to solve the problem, many not making it past the initial concept stage. After reviewing the opportunity, the calibre of the technical staff and their earlier work, it became apparent that Ensembli had a great opportunity ahead. Everyone has "interests", and the technophiles amongst us have used tools to monitor the constant flow of content on the internet, but those tools are not well suited to the mass market and have not seen great adoption".
Mike added, "Relevance is an intensely personla thing and, at its heart, Ensembli knows woh you are, what interests you, and what excites you - we get smarter about you the more you use the service. It's effortless to use, continually acting on your behalf to surface your own must-see stories, and keeping you informed while saving you time and effort".
"We're in a period of intense activity at the moment to get ready for the anticipated demand", said Mike. "We expect that the biggest surprise for users is going to be the simplicity and ease of the service, but you'll have to wait to see that post-launch".
Led by EV, the investment syndicate comprises RisingStars Growth Fund II, South Yorkshire Investment Fund's Seedcorn Fund and The Viking Fund.