A Conservative MP who has trail blazed the way for small firms to pick up much-needed start-up funding with the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) has taken the plunge himself by investing cash in a project.
Recyclabook aims to become the worldwide first port of call for hard-up students looking for expensive text books.
The online service buys in used books from graduates and then sells them on at a margin, but still at a discount on shop prices to students.
Recyclabooks already operates in 26 countries and has outperformed sales forecasts already.
The Braintree, Essex MP, Brooks Newmark has advocated SEIS and led the government’s promotion of the tax breaks for investors since the scheme was introduced in April 2012.
Besides building an online presence, Recyclabooks has a library bus touring UK universities later in the year to drum up business.
Global brand
“I am really looking forward to practice what I have been preaching with this SEIS investment,” Newmark told SEIS.co.uk
He is backing entrepreneurs Tom Williams and James Seear, who have already won a start-up business award with their brainchild business.
“We are really satisfied with the results so far and the funding we have secured from someone with the stature of Brooks Newmark, who has been deeply involved with the government promotion of SEIS,” said Williams.
“It’s been a terrific journey to get this far and we are looking forward to making our brand the place for students to go for textbooks across the globe.”
More about Recyclabook
Jenson intercepts start-ups
Two more start-up businesses have won SEIS funding from fund managers Jenson Seed EIS.
Astonish is cloud-based email marketing software to help small business keep in touch with customers.
Developers Adam Knight and Adam Lovelock applied their 10 years of experience in email marketing to write their own program.
Jenson also sees a good future in store for technology firm Nifty Drives, who market external storage devices for Macbook computers.
The Nifty Drive is an SD card, similar to memory cards that slot into cameras and mobile phones.
The card adds up to 64 GB of space to the Macbook – although card makers have announced 128 GB versions will go on sale in autumn 2014.
More about Nifty Drives
The Jenson SEIS closed in May after raising £4.7 million to invest in start-up businesses.
