Ingenious Ventures, the private equity division of investment and advisory group Ingenious, has agreed an exclusive partnership with Zag, the corporate venturing arm of global advertising agency BBH. Ingenious Ventures has announced an investment in Casabu, a retail start-up for mums.

PRESS RELEASE

Ingenious Ventures, the private equity division of investment and advisory group Ingenious, has agreed an exclusive partnership with Zag, the corporate venturing arm of global advertising agency BBH, to supply a distinctive investment proposition to British world-leading creative industries.

Working together, Ingenious Ventures and Zag will identify, meet and assess EIS-qualifying opportunities and then make investments sharing a joint equity stake. As Ingenious Ventures commits funds to a company, Zag will provide ‘creative capital’ – from helping to initiate basic marketing and brand strategy to accelerating the market presence of the venture leveraging BBH’s client base and media partnerships.

The partners want to invest in exciting companies with high growth potential that have the capability to disrupt existing business models across the media industry. They are searching for businesses in consumer technology (e-commerce, entertainment and content), media (content, production and distribution) and marketing services. The key objective is to invest in ventures where Ingenious and BBH are able to add value from their combined networks.

Ingenious Ventures and BBH combine several decades’ experience of investing and operating in this diverse sector, which employs 2.3 million people – more than Britain’s financial and professional services sectors combined. Past Ingenious exits include 19 Entertainment which generated a 4.5x return and electronic dance music festival operator, Cream which returned 9.1x to investors. BBH has worked with a portfolio of globally-renowned creative clients over its 30 year history, including Google, Audi, British Airways, Virgin Media and more recently, Sony Playstation.

Patrick Bradley, Chief Executive of Ingenious Ventures, commented: “Ingenious and BBH’s offer is above and beyond what any other venture capitalist or brand strategist can bring to a creative start-up right now. Stable funds and strong brands are equally essential for building a great company. We are delighted to be empowering creative and ambitious entrepreneurs to share risk and grow their businesses and brands thanks to our distinctive partnership.

“Through our partnership, Ingenious is able to offer EIS investors an attractive and original proposition. Strategically well-branded companies always have greater growth prospects and we look forward to supporting many of these in the future. We would like to partner with BBH on every investment we make from the Media Opportunities Fund 2 EIS, fundraising for which closes soon.”

Neil Munn, COO of BBH Group, added: “What is exciting about this opportunity is to partner our skills and networks with an industry leader from another sector. While we have known Ingenious for a long time, it is the establishment of the Media Opportunities Fund 2 that gives us the right platform to formally work together.

“The companies that we will be targeting are those that will benefit most from the combined capabilities of Ingenious and BBH. This should give them their own source of competitive advantage and, as a consequence, improve our own chances of an attractive return.”

Ingenious Ventures’ Media Opportunities Fund EIS 2

Ingenious Ventures will make investments from its new Media Opportunities Fund 2 EIS which it is currently raising up to £10 million. This fundraising follows a successful raise last year for the first Media Opportunities Fund EIS.

Closing date: 5 April 2013
Minimum investment: £10,000
Target fundraising amount: £10 million
Tax benefits: EIS qualifying

Investors in Media Opportunities Fund 2 will gain exposure to early to mid-stage media companies at an attractive point in their development cycle. They will also benefit from Ingenious’ long and successful track record of investing in the media sector. The Ingenious Group was founded in 1998 and has raised and deployed in excess of £7 billion, principally in the UK’s creative industries. The firm has raised over £400 million in EIS funds and has invested in and provided support to more than 240 EIS-qualifying companies.

Recent investments made by the first Media Opportunities Fund, which closed a multi-million pound raise in September 2012, include: Digital Theatre which films live theatrical and operatic content in HD and makes this available for consumers to download or stream online globally; Casabu, an online members only club offering heavily discounted deals to parents for a wide range of branded products; and Property Network, the only network of property for sale or rent on Facebook with over 900,000 registered properties and 8,000 estate agent partners.

Interested parties in Media Opportunities Fund 2 should contact their IFA or Siobhan Griffin at Ingenious on 020 7319 4000 for further information.

CONTACTS
For Ingenious
Carmen Murray, Powerscourt
[email protected]
+44 207 324 0496

For BBH
Sarah Pollard, Communications Director, BBH
[email protected]
+44 7976 365204

ABOUT INGENIOUS
Ingenious is a market-leading financial services group providing investment and advisory expertise operating through four divisions. Ingenious is one of the leading investors in the UK’s creative industries and was founded by its Chief Executive, Patrick McKenna in 1998.
Ingenious Ventures is the private equity division of Ingenious.
Ingenious Investments offers a range of alternative investments spanning media and entertainment, sport and leisure and clean energy.
Ingenious Asset Management Limited provides discretionary investment management and innovative solutions to the private investor.
Ingenious Corporate Finance provides comprehensive advice on strategy across a wide range of transactions focusing particularly on the media, entertainment and communications sectors.
For further information, please visit www.ingeniousmedia.co.uk

ABOUT BARTLE BOGLE HEGARTY (BBH)
Bartle Bogle Hegarty is one of the world’s most famous advertising agencies. Founded in 1982 by British ad men John Bartle, Nigel Bogle and John Hegarty, the agency has produced campaigns for many of the world’s most illustrious brands.

BBH’s distinctive micro-network has offices in London, New York, Sao Paolo, Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai and Los Angeles and employs 1000 staff worldwide. Publicis Group bought the business in 2012.

The agency continues to work with its founding client Audi and still uses the famous “Vorsprung Durch Technik” line in its campaigns. The agency’s 28 year relationship with Levi’s produced some of the most iconic advertising in history including “Laundrette” starring Nick Kamen and “Flat Eric” the furry yellow puppet whose soundtrack kept Eminem off the top of the charts. BBH campaigns have produced nine number one hit singles. The 2011 Yeo Valley campaign was the number one trending topic on Twitter globally during The X Factor final and won the marketing society grand prix for effectiveness.

BBH’s success has been founded on its belief in creativity and making its clients’ brands famous. Since 2000, BBH London has won 31 Agency of the Year titles and is the only creative agency to win Campaign’s Agency of the Year three years in a row (2003, 2004, 2005). The agency is the first holder of the double of effectiveness awards, IPA and APG, and in December 2012 won Campaign’s Agency of the Year award for a record seventh time. BBH in the US and UK also won the Webby’s Interactive Agency of the Year in 2012.

Finally, BBH was given the Queen’s award for export achievement in 1996 and 1997 in recognition of its global expansion success and John Hegarty was knighted in 2007 for his services to the advertising industry.

PRESS RELEASE

Casabu, the retail start-up for mums, is aiming to reach a million members by the end of the year after securing a major investment.
The ten-month-old company has raised £900,000 in an investment led by Ingenious Ventures, the private equity division of investment and advisory group Ingenious. Existing investors, Horatio Investments, also took part in the Series A funding round.
Casabu runs daily sale events through its website offering time-poor, price-conscious mums discounts of up to 90% on stylish clothing, toys, nursery equipment and maternity wear. Sales last as little as 48 hours and feature a mix of well-known and up-and-coming brands, offering high quality products that mums need at prices suited to the current economic climate.
Casabu was named one of the top 20 start-ups of 2012 by start-ups.co.uk and operates in a fast growing industry. The UK’s baby and nursery market has increased by 20% since 2008 despite on-going economic challenges affecting families’ outgoings.
Rachel Oxburgh, Casabu’s CEO and herself a mother of two young boys, said: “The beauty of the flash sales model is that we don’t need to sink capital into stock and we can use this investment to grow our customer database.
“As well as acquiring customers through traditional channels, we will be investing in new technologies that enable us to deliver the best in customer curation, personalisation and social shopping.
“Both parents and their children have individual taste and style and are primarily interested in products that are age-appropriate, but UK retailers in the baby market currently offer a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
“In the US we are witnessing start-ups achieving great success by putting the customer at the controls of the business development. Mums are time-poor, but know what they want. We are planning to take the flash sales concept to a whole new level, providing women with the service they want, when they want it and how they want it, placing them firmly at the heart of everything we do.”
The company was co-founded by Rachel Oxburgh and John Heseltine. Rachel has 15 years’ experience as a digital executive most recently having founded and built The Storm, a leading digital agency that worked with blue chip brands. She had previously worked as a consultant for dotcom fast-5 firm Scient and as a geochemistry lecturer at Edinburgh University.
At the end of 2011, Rachel teamed up with former colleague and successful retail entrepreneur John Heseltine to found Casabu. Together they have built an experienced management team including Creative Director Matt Rowe (The Storm and LBi), Head of Buying Leslie-Ann Phillips (Mothercare and House of Fraser) and recent addition Julie Fawcett (former Head of Marketing at Achica).
Ingenious Ventures made the investment in Casabu from its first Media Opportunities Fund that invests early-stage capital in businesses across the media and creative industries sector. Ingenious is currently raising up to £10 million for its second Media Opportunities Fund.
Patrick Bradley, CEO of Ingenious Ventures, said: “Casabu is just the sort of company Ingenious Ventures loves to work with. When we met Rachel and her team, we were immediately impressed by their ambition and enthusiasm, but most of all their innate understanding of the market they are targeting: time-pressed parents looking for good value clothes and toys without sacrificing quality or style.”
Casabu also leverages the surge in the number of “digital mums” who use their PCs, tablets and smartphones to shop online and who share stories and experiences through Twitter and Facebook. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, 89% of mums with young children in the UK use the internet regularly, spending on average 17.8 hours online each week.
Oxburgh said: “Our target customers are mums who love sharing ideas and experiences with their friends. As long as we provide them with uncompromising quality and great customer service, they will spread the word about Casabu for us.”
CONTACTS
For Casabu:
Lucy Mason, Mason Media: +44 (0) 151 239 5050 / +44 (0) 7903 197402 / [email protected]
For Ingenious:
Carmen Murray, Powerscourt: +44 (0) 20 7324 0496 / +44 (0) 7713 110624 / [email protected]
ABOUT CASABU
Casabu is a flash sales site offering daily online sales on a huge range of brands and products, providing everything that mums, babies, toddlers and growing kids need.
Sales last for a limited time only creating a feeling of scarcity and a “buzz” about a brand. The sense of exclusivity is further achieved through the sales only being available to Casabu members – people who have registered with the site.
Suppliers are able to reach a wide but truly targeted customer base and can use the sales to move stock, promote new lines and raise brand profile. In turn, customers can make huge savings on quality products that they really need, from brands that they know and trust but also new ones trying to establish themselves.

ABOUT INGENIOUS
Ingenious is a market-leading financial services group providing investment and advisory expertise operating through four divisions. Ingenious is one of the leading investors in the UK’s creative industries, having invested £8 billion to date, and was founded by its Chief Executive, Patrick McKenna in 1998.
Ingenious Ventures is the private equity division of Ingenious.
Ingenious Investments offers a range of alternative investments spanning media and entertainment, sport and leisure and clean energy.
Ingenious Asset Management Limited provides discretionary investment management and innovative solutions to the private investor.
Ingenious Corporate Finance provides comprehensive advice on strategy across a wide range of transactions focusing particularly on the media, entertainment and communications sectors.
For further information, please visit www.ingeniousmedia.co.uk