Dragon's Den investment hits Entrepreneur Country - 28/05/2009

This week in Entrepreneur Country :

From Dragon's Den to FIFA World Cup

Julie Meyer and Ariadne Capital are very excited to introduce Warren Cole to Entrepreneur Country.
Warren is one of the few applicants to receive an investment through the latest instalment of the BBC's famous Dragons' Den.
In the Den, Warren presented the opportunity to invest in bringing the next England World Cup football song Believe to the fans and supporters for the FIFA 2010 tournament in South Africa. Excited by the opportunity to work with a talented musician and leverage Ariadne's existing expertise in the digital media sector (gained through various music related investments) to bring Warren's talent to the fore in a modern way, Julie decided to invest in the opportunity.
Born in Bath in the same year England last won the Football World Cup (1966), Warren impressed Julie with his passion for music, the England team and his eagerness to engage with the digital music ecosystem.
As Julie and the Ariadne team work with Warren we will be jointly posting fortnightly diary blogs to tell the story from the inside, lifting the lid on the ecosystem as we take advantage of the digital revolution in music and beat the path to launching a successful music career for Warren.
Since his appearance on Dragons' Den, Warren has been writing a number of new songs and recording raw acoustic versions. These will be released via Warren's brand new Myspace, Bebo and Facebook profiles, making sure Entrepreneur Country members hear about it first.
We invite you to follow us on this journey - as we chart this very raw, very personal experience of bringing music to light you can follow it here on Entrepreneur Country.

IIP signs strategic deal with Nettwerk

Netherlands-based technology solutions company Independent IP (IIP) has signed a partnership deal with Nettwerk, one of the most influential artist management companies in the music world.
IIP's flagship product is FUGA, which is described as “Digital Product Factory” for content owners, where they can very quickly “assemble” a variety of digital products from existing digital assets: audio, video, still images and metadata. The digital products become the sellable unit that is delivered to the online retailers “warehouse”. FUGA also enables transparent digital rights management for all parts of the ecosystem.
IIP CEO Albert Slendebroek said of the deal: "Nettwerk are known for their innovative way of working and after some rigorous due diligence, they concluded that IIP has the most user friendly and fastest platform in the world! We will make the most of this signing to attract both new clients and potential investors."
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Russian firm invests $200m in Facebook

Facebook this week announced that Russian internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST) has made a $200m investment in the social networking firm, representing a 1.96% stake at a $10bn valuation.
“This investment demonstrates Facebook’s ongoing success at creating a global network for people to share and connect,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “A number of firms approached us, but DST stood out because of the global perspective they bring – backed up by the impressive growth and financial achievements of their internet investments. We’re looking forward to working with the DST team.”
In addition, DST indicated it planned to buy at least $100m of Facebook common stock held by current and former employees.
According to Facebook and consistent with its practices, DST will not be represented on the board or hold special observer rights.
US computer software giant Microsoft bought a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook for $240m in 2007, a deal that at the time valued the company at $15bn.

The "stream" gets deeper and faster

In the constant attempts to predict the next big thing for the future of digital media and the internet, the latest contender is the 'stream' or 'real-time' flow of information.
Where the internet was traditionally organised around pages, sites, browsers etc, the stream is a dynamic flow of information running through the web, organised primarily by immediacy.
Twitter is the classic example, but there are a multitude of new and established companies enabling new behaviours where communication is constant, delivering news, status updates, shared thoughts, pictures, videos and more.
Talk of the stream has been emerging from many corners. For an excellent overview of the what it could mean for the way we consume information, read Erick Schonfeld's post at leading technology blog Techcrunch.

Politics the Jury Team way

Since its launch in March 2009, the Jury Team has hit the political scene with a bang, leading a new wave of independent, democratic and accountable politics.
Amidst the MPs' expenses scandal, the Jury Team is causing a shake-up of the traditional notion of a political party and meeting an appetite for change with 'Politics for the People, Politics without Parties and Politics with Principles'.
Sir Paul Judge, founder of the Jury Team, former director-general of the Conservative party and a past speaker at the Entrepreneur Country forum, said the Jury Team candidates had all "pledged to vote on conscience for the good of their constituents and the country and will not be required to obey a party whip".
The Jury Team is backing 59 Independent candidates at next month's euro poll.