SPARK invests in Market Clusters
NewMedia SPARK ("SPARK")
Investee Update
MarketClusters announces $3m expansion funding
NewMedia Spark plc (SPARK), is pleased to announce an investment in MarketClusters Limited, a developer of the 'StrategyWire' intelligence platform enabling corporate and financial clients to accurately filter - and put into context - expert opinions created in Blogs or News feeds. SPARK has joined other investors including a well-known group of individuals active in both technology investment and managing online information businesses. Jay Patel, a director of SPARK, will be joining the MarketClusters' board.
MarketClusters has raised a total of $3m in its first round funding. The proceeds are being used to enhance its core StrategyWire product, expand its sales team and add further analysts to move into new sectors beyond Digital Media such as Clean Technologies.
The explosion of end-user content in blogs and other online sources is starting to dramatically change the way professionals research and interpret opinions on industry events - particularly as selected blog authors are now often absolute authorities on their subjects. MarketClusters' flagship product, StrategyWire, continuously and intelligently filters this expert commentary and presents it to clients through a highly intuitive interface that allows rapid and easy identification of new trends and potential investment themes.
MarketClusters client base includes global Corporates, Investment Banks, Venture Capitalists and other advisory professionals. Current enterprise subscribers to StrategyWire include AOL, Ask.com, BSkyB, Chrysalis, Disney, Flextech, HBO, ITV, Liberty Media, MTV, NTL, QVC, Rogers Communications, Virgin Mobile, Yahoo, Benchmark Capital, Atlas Venture, Wellington Partners and Close Brothers.
Jay Patel, Director at NewMedia SPARK commented :
"We believe MarketClusters' platforms for filtering Internet opinion and putting this into industry-wide context has put it at the forefront of a new wave of research and publishing firms. We expect its services to be applicable to corporate and advisory organisations across multiple sectors globally and we are delighted to be backing the firm at this exciting stage of expansion."
Nick Gregg, CEO and founder of MarketClusters, added:
"We are extremely pleased to be supported by such a strong base of successful investors, particularly given the background of many of them in developing online information businesses. We very much look forward to working closely with our new shareholders as we build out our sales teams into both new sectors and territories."
For more information, please contact:
MarketClusters
Nick Gregg, founder and CEO / Jeremy Phillips, co-founder and COO
020 7376 5829
NewMedia SPARK
Jay Patel
020 7851 7777
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About MarketClusters
Founded by a former technology equities analyst with a US investment bank, MarketClusters provides customized market intelligence solutions for major corporate, SME, investment banking, venture capital and other advisory clients.
Our flagship product, StrategyWire, was launched in April 2006 and is a fully hosted intelligence solution, initially focused on the complex and converging Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) sectors.
StrategyWire tracks (real-time), thousands of analyst-ranked Blog and News sources for opinions and deal flow stories (M&A, VC and Partnership) and indexes these against a database of highly-defined public and private companies and industry categories. All categories are linked within our system in a unique visual industry map allowing clients to put any event into its true industry context. Our analysis tools allow full dealflow report generation from our archive back to 2005.
In addition to a highly filtered daily alert on sector activity, key StrategyWire features include:
* Blog / News Monitoring - 20,000+ Digital Media articles indexed daily from analyst-ranked business Blog or News sources
* Company Tracking - 7,500+ public and private Digital Media companies defined for accurate Blog and News tracking
* Category Tracking - 250+ industry categories defined for tracking and fully populated with Companies
* Watchlist Alerts - Instant alerting to any mention of clients' watchlist Companies or Categories in articles tracked
* Editorial Analysis - Analysts reviewing and summarising collective opinion on key stories and extracting deal data
* Advanced Search Tools - Instant searching for opinion or deal articles by Company, Category or a combination
* Deal Report Generation - Instantly generate historic M&A, Partnership and VC reports by Company or Category
* Market Statistics - Instantly generate reports showing market statistics indexed accurately by Category
* Industry Mapping - Visually navigate industry value-chains and 'plot' articles show relevant context and highlight trends
Clients include AOL, Ask.com, BSkyB, Chrysalis, Disney, Flextech, HBO, ITV, Liberty Media, MTV, NTL, QVC, Rogers Communications, Virgin Mobile, Yahoo, Benchmark Capital, Atlas Venture, Wellington Partners and Close Brothers.
MarketClusters now has a team of 27 people in UK, Australia and US.
For further information, see www.marketclusters.com.
About NewMedia SPARK plc
NewMedia SPARK is a quoted venture capital organisation based in central London focused on early stage investments in the technology, media and telecoms sectors. SPARK's portfolio has a particular emphasis on digital media, software applications, technology and communications. As an investor, SPARK expects to add significant value to its investments through active support and strategic direction. SPARK is listed on London's Alternative Investment Market.
Recent successful exits for SPARK include the sale of Mergermarket to Pearson for £120m, the sale of Footfall to Experian for £36m and the sale of Elata to Qualcomm for $57m.
For further information, see www.newmediaspark.com.