The Creative Capital Fund (CCF) is delighted to announce the completion of its investment in UTalk Limited.
The business
Utalk is an online trade publisher targeting specific groups of industry professionals. Its first website www.utalkmarketing.com is aimed at those in the marketing industry and competes against the likes of Marketing Week, Brand Republic and mad.co.uk. What makes Utalk different is its focus on user generated content combined with community functionality to create a broader range of highly relevant content. Utalk has been trading since early 2007 and www.utalkmarketing.com is attracting over 65,000 unique monthly visitors, a number which is increasing steadily on a monthly basis. Revenue is generated from recruitment and service advertising.
The CEO and Founder of Utalk is Niall McKinney, a senior marketing executive who was until recently Chief Marketing Officer at Lastminute.com. Previously Niall was Marketing & Publishing Director at IPC where he oversaw the launch of Nuts, Europe’s best selling men’s magazine.
John Handley has been appointment as non executive Chairman. John brings a wealth of board-level expertise after recent board positions at Maverick TV and Cycling TV, where he assisted the exits of those businesses, having had a successful career in venture capital at Bridgepoint, ECI and latterly LDC.
The funding
CCF has invested £140,000 out of a total of £200,000 in new funding for the business. The balance of the funding has come two experienced business angels. CCF has agreed an option to make a further investment in the third quarter of 2008, subject to the business achieving certain milestones.