Demystifying the investment/funding practice for Edtech Start-ups

Hi everyone! Delighted to give the final details on our up-coming meet up:

new speaker and sponsor details added below

Date: Monday October 23rd

Theme: Demystifying the investment/funding practice for Edtech Start-ups

Venue: Plexal, 4 East Bay Lane, The Press Centre, Here East, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, London E15 2GW, London.

Transport: Hackney Wick Overground or Stratford and catch Here East Bus or #388 bus

Timings:

6.00: Arrive, Networking, Drinks and Nibbles

6.40 Sophie Bailey, The Edtech Podcast Welcome(s)

• Why this topic came about for a meet up

• Thank you to speakers and sponsors

• Upcoming events, Ed Academy, UFI and Innovate Edtech

6:45 A word from Richard Male, Impact Investment, UFI

6:50 A word from Jo Sayers, Innovate Edtech

7.00 - 7.30: What have I learnt about fundraising and investment in the past 10 years? Ben Drury, Co-Founder and CEO at Yoto speech and Q and A

7.30 - 8.15: Panel on Demystifying the investment/funding practice for Edtech Start-ups with:

• Jan Matern, CEO and Co-Founder, Emerge Education

• Vanessa Gstettenbauer, Senior Investment Manager, Founders Factory Ltd

• Jessica Stacey, Partner, Bethnal Green Ventures

• Daisy Hill, Former, Head, CrowdFest, AD, ZZISH

8.30 - 9.00: Networking, drinks and nibbles

9.00: Go to pub, Mason and Co's

We will be asking the following questions during the evening:

• What funding is out there?

• Who is funding what in edtech?

• How to get started?

• How to make it less intimidating?

• What options are there for raising money?

Find out more about Ben Drury, our meet-up speaker:

Please join us to hear from Ben Drury, Co-Founder and CEO at Yoto, "a clever speaker for kids aged 2+ and curated content platform with music, stories and learning”.

Ben began his career in 1996 as a founder of dotmusic.com, an internal venture at United News and Media which attracted over 1.8m unique users per month (in 1999). In 2000 Ben was recruited by BT Group to head up the broadband music efforts at their ISP BT Openworld where he successfully launched a major music channel. Following the partnership between BT and Yahoo! to form BT Yahoo! in 2003, Ben engineered the sale of dotmusic to Yahoo! for approx. £3.3m.

Ben then founded 7digital with James Kane in 2004 with the vision of creating a digital media marketplace. 7digital operates services that bring together suppliers and consumers of digital media. In September 2008 7digital.com was the first company in Europe to launch DRM-free MP3 downloads with all four major record labels. In September 2009 HMV Group acquired a 50% equity stake in 7digital with an investment of £7.7m.

Ben was named by Growing Business magazine as a Young Gun 2006 – the award for leading entrepreneurs under 35. In 2007, 7digital was awarded the prestigious Red Herring Top 100 Europe Award as one of the most promising technology companies in Europe.

More recently, Ben announced his new start up Yoto, "a clever speaker for kids aged 2+ and curated content platform with music, stories and learning”. Outside of Yoto, Ben is also an investor and Board Member at Pimoroni, one of the UK's leading Raspberry Pi and maker movement manufacturers and retailers.

Across all of this extensive experience Ben has raised significant funds through various methods and is currently spearheading a Kickstarter campaign. He also has experience as an investor and board member and is the perfect guest, stating "I can talk for hours about fundraising :)”

I am delighted we can welcome Ben and our panellist guests and look forward to having a fantastic, fun and really useful evening learning together.

Please sign up and share today, and come to the evening with lots of questions!

Thank you to our wonderful sponsors and venue for making the evening flow with drinks, nibbles and a roof over our head!

• Venue Plexal (http://www.plexal.com/)

• Lead sponsor: UFI (https://www.ufi.co.uk/)

• Co-Sponsor: Innovate Edtech (https://iedtech17.innovateevents.com/)

Venue Plexal (http://www.plexal.com/)

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This meet-up is being hosted at Plexal, the innovation destination at Here East in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Designed as a mini city that has its own high street and indoor park, it's a place where startups and corporates join forces. Plexal hosts events, offers innovation services, has launched an assistive tech accelerator and rents private offices or desks to startups working in areas like AI, cybersecurity, healthtech, VR and more. If you want to learn more or fancy a tour of the space, visit plexal.com (http://plexal.com/).

Lead sponsor UFI (https://www.ufi.co.uk/)Charitable Trust

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UFI looks to fund projects that have the potential to catalyse change in the UK vocational learning landscape. We anticipate that these will be both practical and innovative, with the potential for scale. Applicants may benefit from working in collaboration with employers or other learning providers to make sure that the idea is grounded and deliverable in this market. The VocTech Showcase is Ufi's annual technology exhibition and networking event in central London and takes place on the 2nd November 2017 atThe IET. More at: https://www.ufi.co.uk

• Ufi is an independent, grant-funding charity which supports the widespread development and adoption of digital technology in adult vocational learning across the UK.
• We invest in the growth of scalable vocational technology to increase skills for work.
• We are strong advocates for the importance and value of vocational technology, and believe in demonstrating possibilities through doing.
• Our approach is different to other grant-funding charities. We add support to projects beyond the financial value of the grant.
• We provide funding at many stages; for innovative solutions at early seed stage, to those that are market testing, through to large scale, near market partnerships.

Co-Sponsor Innovate Edtech (https://iedtech17.innovateevents.com/)

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InnovateEdTech Conference 2017 is a one-day event focused on the most effective and innovative uses of technology in education. The day is made up of engaging and impactful talks and workshops, mixed in with plenty of opportunities to try things out, connect with people from all over the education space, make new friends, share experiences and be inspired. In particular there will be a focus on the following five areas:

• Personalisation and differentiation – including a focus on different special educational needs

• Interaction – from learner to teacher and between learners

• Technology for teachers – professional development and helping teachers better serve their learners

• Learner engagement – delight, fun and motivation

• Co-creation – bringing teacher and learner voices into EdTech product development

InnovateEdTech 2017, The Rise Of Learner Experience takes place on Saturday 11th November at Loughborough Campus London, Hackney Wick. More here: https://iedtech17.innovateevents.com/

See you soon! @podcastedtech #edtechpod