LONDON, January 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ –
Adzuna, the next-generation job search engine, has today announced it has raised £500k investment financing from Index Ventures, The Accelerator Group and existing investors including Passion Capital. The latest funding follows a seed round last year.
Launched in July 2011, Adzuna classifieds aims to become the world’s leading search engine for classifieds, bringing together all the ads and connecting users with them in new ways.
Adzuna collates almost every job ad in the UK in real time from hundreds of websites, including all of the major job boards as well as sources like the London 2012 Olympics, Williams Formula 1 and the Royal Household. In addition to listing around 500,000 vacancies, the unique Adzuna Connect feature helps users “get hired with a little help from their friends” by connecting them to Adzuna jobs where they have first or second-degree connections on LinkedIn or Facebook.
The site also offers a wealth of data about the jobs and companies recruiting, from average salary data to employee reviews, interview questions and “CEO Approval ratings”.
Since launch in July, Adzuna has rapidly grown to hundreds of thousands of visitors per month, and was named a Top 20 Startup of 2011 by Startups.co.uk, a finalist in the Website of the Year awards, and shortlisted for the Europas.
This latest round of funding will be used to drive further product innovation around social and data, and expand into other verticals as well as international markets.
Robin Klein, Venture Partner at Index, said, “We’re delighted to be working with Andrew and Doug, experienced entrepreneurs whom we know well from their track records at Gumtree, Qype and Zoopla. The Adzuna team has achieved a great deal in a short period of time, and we believe the innovations they continue to bring to the market will change the way people search for classified ads.”
Doug Monro, Co-Founder of Adzuna, said: “We’re really excited to have top-class investors like Index, The Accelerator Group and Passion involved. We are passionate about making the classifieds search experience fundamentally better for users in the UK and beyond. This will help us towards that vision.”
About Adzuna
Adzuna.co.uk (http://www.adzuna.co.uk) is a search engine for classified ads which makes it easier for you to find the right job locally – and soon properties and cars too. We search thousands of sites so you don’t have to, bring together millions of ads so you can find them all in one place, and organize them with useful features so that you can easily find what you need.
Adzuna founders Andrew Hunter and Doug Monro met working at Gumtree in 2005. They stayed in the local internet space for the next 5 years and finally hatched the Adzuna plan in 2010 on the back of an envelope in a central London pub. The site was launched in July 2011.
Doug Monro was most recently COO of property portal Zoopla, leading the growth of the team from 5 to 75 people and the site to number 2 in UK property with 5M visitors a month. Previously he was MD of Gumtree.com, the UK’s largest classified ads site, and has worked for eBay UK, Bain & Co and Unilever. He has a BA in English from Cambridge and an MBA with distinction from Kellogg.
Andrew Hunter was mostly recently VP Marketing and General Manager of local review site Qype, where he grew the site from 0-17m monthly unique visitors in 2 years. Before Qype, Andrew was Head of Marketing at Gumtree.com and ran Search Marketing for the Thomas Cook Group. Andrew has a BSc in Business & Economics from Oxford Brookes University.
About Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a leading venture capital firm specializing in investments in information technology and life sciences companies. The firm invests in seed, early and growth stage start-ups across US and Europe. Since its inception in 1996, Index Ventures has backed visionary entrepreneurs who have taken on incumbents and built seminal companies in a number of growth sectors including: open source software companies such as MySQL, Trolltech, Zend and Pentaho; broadband and VOIP companies such as Virata, Skype, FON and Rebtel; Internet service companies such as Dropbox, Path, Betfair, Oanda, Last.fm, SpotRunner, Lovefilm, Stardoll and Netvibes; and life science companies such as Genmab, ParAllele Biosciences, BioXell, 7TM Pharma, Addex Pharmaceutical and PanGenetics.
About Passion Capital
Passion Capital (http://passioncapital.com) was established in March 2011 by Stefan Glaenzer, Eileen Burbidge and Robert Dighero with the aim of becoming the premier early stage digital media and technology investment firm in the UK. The partners have more than 50 years’ collective experience in entrepreneurial, founding and executive operational roles in technology firms.
About The Accelerator Group (TAG)
Based in London, The Accelerator Group (TAG) has been an investor in early stage and start-up companies since 1995. They focus on the Internet services, eCommerce and multi-channel retail sectors, investing primarily in the US and Europe. TAG’s current investments include: Moo, Wonga, Moshi Monsters, Graze, Zoopla, Skimlinks and previously: LoveFilm, Fizzback, Tweetdeck and Dopplr.
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2012年1月19日星期四
Sikich Investment leads recapitalization of FiberLink
Article updated: 1/18/2012 12:34 AM
By Marketwire
By Marketwire
CHICAGO — Sikich Investment Banking said it completed a recapitalization of FiberLink LLC, an owner of regional fiber optic routes between Chicago and Denver and Chicago and New Orleans.
Sikich served as the exclusive placement agent to FiberLink, securing financing from Silicon Valley-based Bridge Bank. The proceeds were used to recapitalize the company.
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Sikich Investment Banking’s Capital Markets team specializes in approaching capital markets from a comprehensive and strategic perspective, and designing customized financing structures to help fulfill growth strategies for clients at acceptable levels of risk. The team, led by Mark Solovy, head of the Capital Markets group, worked closely with FiberLink’s management to structure the transaction, prepare offering materials, conduct the financing process, assist with investor due diligence, and ultimately negotiate the terms of the final transaction.
“Mark and his Sikich colleagues have a very broad network of investor relationships, as well as financing expertise with emerging growth companies,” said Kenneth D. Anderson, chairman of FiberLink. “The team clearly understands the unique characteristics and challenges of emerging growth technology companies in accessing the ever-changing competitive capital markets, and was able to structure a transaction with terms which were advantageous for FiberLink.”
http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
Sikich served as the exclusive placement agent to FiberLink, securing financing from Silicon Valley-based Bridge Bank. The proceeds were used to recapitalize the company.
Advertisement
Sikich Investment Banking’s Capital Markets team specializes in approaching capital markets from a comprehensive and strategic perspective, and designing customized financing structures to help fulfill growth strategies for clients at acceptable levels of risk. The team, led by Mark Solovy, head of the Capital Markets group, worked closely with FiberLink’s management to structure the transaction, prepare offering materials, conduct the financing process, assist with investor due diligence, and ultimately negotiate the terms of the final transaction.
“Mark and his Sikich colleagues have a very broad network of investor relationships, as well as financing expertise with emerging growth companies,” said Kenneth D. Anderson, chairman of FiberLink. “The team clearly understands the unique characteristics and challenges of emerging growth technology companies in accessing the ever-changing competitive capital markets, and was able to structure a transaction with terms which were advantageous for FiberLink.”
http://tourism9.com/ http://vkins.com/
2012年1月6日星期五
Can Credit Unions Replace "Predatory" Lending?
Felix Salmon has a really interesting piece about a professor who took out a loan from a personal finance company–at a roughly 40% APR–after her credit union turned her away.
But I don’t think that they are somehow going to substitute for the lenders at the bottom of the risk market: loan companies and payday lenders. Felix, who is on the board of a credit union, may have some insight into this that I don’t, of course. But right now, I don’t see it.
That’s not the only reason to think that these loans are expensive. Since they are often for very small amounts, they have high transaction costs relative to the loan amount–it takes just as much time to process forms for a $200 loan as it does for a $10,000 loan.
There’s also the structure of the loan, which involves a lot of intensive interaction with the borrower. Remember, the short term (and the fact that they’re tied to payday) helps hold down the default costs on payday loans. It’s also really expensive to achieve; it means maintaining a storefront with people in it at all hours.
Credit unions might make those loans somewhat cheaper by layering that overhead on top of existing operations, and because they don’t need to make a profit. On the other hand, credit unions lack expertise and skill in this sort of loan. In general, credit union loans are not wildly cheaper than similar loans from other institutions.
But I suspect that what Felix has in mind is substituting a different–and much cheaper–type of loan for the payday loans. And I’m skeptical that this can happen. All of the research that I’ve seen on these super-expensive loan products indicates that most of the people who are taking them are not doing so because they don’t understand how high the interest rate is, but rather, because they have exhausted all of their other borrowing options. (And frequently, the alternative is even more expensive: a bounced check fee, a utility disconnect that will require a hefty fee for reconnection, a lost day of work because of car trouble).
So I take it that the reason that the credit unions aren’t putting them into cheaper loans is that they can’t. The cost of an unsecured loan to someone with terrible credit is high because those loans go bad very frequently, resulting not only in the loss of funds, but in considerable overhead expended on collection. Particularly in the case of credit unions, who–as my auto loan illustrates–work very, very hard to keep their members’ loans from going bad.
And I’d guess that credit unions, for all sorts of reasons, don’t really want to get into the super-expensive-super-risky loan business. That’s why they focus on figuring out how to help you not need the money. Obviously, that is going to be a bad outcome in some particular cases, because no system is ever perfect. But on balance, I can understand why credit unions aren’t eager to get into the payday loan game.
1. They’re losing money on it, and a lot of credit unions can’t be in the business of charity to people who need payday loans
2. Their lending population is somehow different from those who need regular payday loans (state paychecks are pretty steady, and the program requires direct deposit)
3. It’s a game changer that will revolutionize payday loans.
I’m pretty skeptical that #3 is the answer–these loans are cheaper than most credit cards, and that’s a very competitive space. On the other hand, all game changing innovations suffer from not having been done before: that’s no proof that they can’t be. I’ll only note that the general experience of nonprofits in this space seems to be that they have to charge high APRs (or fees that amount to the same thing) in order to make up for the costs.
More From The Atlantic
http://tourism9.com/
Is it a good idea for the professor to be taking out loans at 40% interest rates? Really, she didn’t have much of a choice. She needed the money, she got precious little help from her credit union, and the loan company was friendly and extended her the cash on terms she could afford.Salmon, who is an enormous booster of credit unions, thinks that this points to directions for reform:
What’s more, the professor’s relationship with World Finance has indeed improved her credit. Since taking out that first loan, she’s obtained two different credit cards, and also bought a brand-new BMW with 2.9% financing. All with essentially no help at all from her primary financial institution, which is Missouri Credit Union. The debt the professor is taking on may or may not be wise, given her unique individual circumstances. And the credit union could in theory be a valuable resource in terms of helping her work out whether, for instance, she can really afford that car. But the relationship there is broken, and I see no chance that it will be fixed.
James does admit that he let the professor down: “I think we did fail her,” he says, “and I don’t think we did what we should have done.” The credit union dropped the ball with respect to her loan application, which was left in limbo when she was in a time of need. But at the same time, he also admitted to me that the credit union would not have given her the unsecured loan she was looking for.
The professor’s credit score is now good enough that she qualifies for a mortgage; it wasn’t before. That’s the kind of help a credit union should be able to give, and it’s disappointing that Missouri Credit Union doesn’t seem to be able to bring itself to do that. If the professor (a) wanted credit and (b) wanted to improve her credit score, then the loan company was, sadly, the place she needed to go.
So two things are needed here, I think. The first is effective regulation, with teeth; I hope that Richard Cordray, newly installed at the head of the CFPB, will start providing that soon. There’s no time to waste.I too, am a fan of the credit union. We got our mortgage through Navy Federal, and even though we could probably refinance to something cheaper, we’re sticking with them because I like the customer service and the fact that they will bend over backwards to fix issues with your loan. (Back when I had a car loan, it took me a year to straighten out issues with my car titling, and as long as I made the payments, they kept giving me more time).
But regulation isn’t enough: we also need alternatives — non-predatory financial products which allow people with bad credit to repair that credit and get back on their feet. Many credit unions provide such products, but as we’ve seen, many credit unions don’t. And credit unions are in any case often difficult institutions to navigate: it’s never entirely obvious who’s allowed to join any given one. Can someone set up a Kiva for America? Help is needed, here. And it’s very hard to find.
Credit unions are not charities. They have responsibilities to the members who deposit money with them: they cannot make loans that are reasonably likely to lose money (at least in aggregate). And while the interest rates on products like payday loans are indeed eye-popping, the companies themselves are not especially profitable. This suggests that the reason the loans are so expensive is that they cost a lot to make.
Why is this? For starters, because the risk of default is very high. It’s hard to get good numbers, and estimates vary widely, but I’m pretty sure that they’re well north of 10%. That’s a pretty high default rate for any type of loan, but particularly one where the term is measured in weeks.That’s not the only reason to think that these loans are expensive. Since they are often for very small amounts, they have high transaction costs relative to the loan amount–it takes just as much time to process forms for a $200 loan as it does for a $10,000 loan.
There’s also the structure of the loan, which involves a lot of intensive interaction with the borrower. Remember, the short term (and the fact that they’re tied to payday) helps hold down the default costs on payday loans. It’s also really expensive to achieve; it means maintaining a storefront with people in it at all hours.
Credit unions might make those loans somewhat cheaper by layering that overhead on top of existing operations, and because they don’t need to make a profit. On the other hand, credit unions lack expertise and skill in this sort of loan. In general, credit union loans are not wildly cheaper than similar loans from other institutions.
But I suspect that what Felix has in mind is substituting a different–and much cheaper–type of loan for the payday loans. And I’m skeptical that this can happen. All of the research that I’ve seen on these super-expensive loan products indicates that most of the people who are taking them are not doing so because they don’t understand how high the interest rate is, but rather, because they have exhausted all of their other borrowing options. (And frequently, the alternative is even more expensive: a bounced check fee, a utility disconnect that will require a hefty fee for reconnection, a lost day of work because of car trouble).
So I take it that the reason that the credit unions aren’t putting them into cheaper loans is that they can’t. The cost of an unsecured loan to someone with terrible credit is high because those loans go bad very frequently, resulting not only in the loss of funds, but in considerable overhead expended on collection. Particularly in the case of credit unions, who–as my auto loan illustrates–work very, very hard to keep their members’ loans from going bad.
And I’d guess that credit unions, for all sorts of reasons, don’t really want to get into the super-expensive-super-risky loan business. That’s why they focus on figuring out how to help you not need the money. Obviously, that is going to be a bad outcome in some particular cases, because no system is ever perfect. But on balance, I can understand why credit unions aren’t eager to get into the payday loan game.
Update: Apparently, some are. But the products often aren’t substantially cheaper than regular payday loans–though Felix highlights this program at a State Employees credit union, which does look much cheaper.
Felix asks me if there’s any reason that last program can’t scale. I think there are three possibilities:1. They’re losing money on it, and a lot of credit unions can’t be in the business of charity to people who need payday loans
2. Their lending population is somehow different from those who need regular payday loans (state paychecks are pretty steady, and the program requires direct deposit)
3. It’s a game changer that will revolutionize payday loans.
I’m pretty skeptical that #3 is the answer–these loans are cheaper than most credit cards, and that’s a very competitive space. On the other hand, all game changing innovations suffer from not having been done before: that’s no proof that they can’t be. I’ll only note that the general experience of nonprofits in this space seems to be that they have to charge high APRs (or fees that amount to the same thing) in order to make up for the costs.
More From The Atlantic
http://tourism9.com/
2012年1月2日星期一
Online shoe clubs are in step with fashion-forward women
Once a month, you can automatically receive in the mail a bottle of wine, a box of organic fruit and now, a pair of sequined stilettos.
In a cyber twist to the traditional monthly sales clubs, shoe membership websites have become a hit among fashion-forward women, who say they bring together the convenience and affordability of shopping online with the personalized experience offered in a boutique.
“This is fashion of the future,” said celebrity fashion designer Kimora Lee Simmons, who recently signed on as president, creative director and an investor of JustFabulous Inc., an El Segundo membership club. “It speaks to the modern-day woman’s budget and lifestyle.”
Members register on sites such as ShoeDazzle.com Inc. or JustFabulous for free and take a fashion personality quiz — What outfit are you most likely to wear on a first date? Which celebrity’s closet would you most like to raid? — to determine their unique style preferences.
On the first of each month, members log in to their accounts to view a limited, customized showroom of shoes: five-inch gold platform heels for the Hollywood clubgoer, conservative flats for the girl next door, studded leather boots for the rocker chick. The shoes are designed in-house, often by a team of high-profile celebrities and stylists, and customers receive the pair of their choice starting at $39.95, including shipping. Members can skip a month if they don’t feel like receiving a new pair of shoes, provided they opt out (usually by the fifth of the month).
The member-only programs have quickly attracted hordes of loyal shoppers. The sites, subscribers say, are easy to use, are customer-friendly when it comes to returns and exchanges, and usually do a good job identifying what styles they like.
“It’s very addicting. I have a heel collection now; before, I probably had maybe like one or two pairs that lasted me years,” said Yucaipa resident Amber Venturina, 26, who joined ShoeDazzle in June and also became a member of JustFabulous. Now “I have to have shoes in every color.”
Shoe club officials say the websites make the process of buying shoes less overwhelming while bringing the elite service of a personal shopper to the masses.
“Not everyone has access to a stylist, but we can be a stylist through that technology and hopefully recommend the right products,” said Josh Berman, chief executive of BeachMint Inc., which operates newly launched shoe club ShoeMint. “Rather than going to an Amazon or Google and typing ‘shoes’ and having thousands of things to choose from, what we’re learning is consumers like to be curated and shown what is hot.”
But as fashion memberships surge in popularity, they’re adding to the increasing pressures on bricks-and-mortar merchants. Because shoe clubs sell directly to customers and don’t operate physical stores, they’re able to save on overhead costs such as staffing and rent, enabling the brands to price the shoes for about half of what they would cost at the mall, company officials estimated.
“We are in the midst of a reinvention of retail,” said Kasey Lobaugh, a principal at Deloitte Consulting who follows online shopping trends. “Retailers are being forced to innovate the business model. If they don’t, there is now a long list of nontraditional competitors who will.”
Another problem for old-school retailers: Many members are flocking to the shoe clubs’ Facebook pages and other social media sites to ask other shoppers for help choosing a style or pairing their latest purchase with the right outfit. That high level of interaction is creating tight-knit Web communities of shoe aficionados and replicating the in-store experience of shopping with a group of girlfriends, historically something that couldn’t be found online.
“I’ve made a lot of good friends from the shoe clubs. We keep in touch in real life: We email, we text, we call,” said Joyce Moore, 33, a Palmdale stay-at-home mom who has bought dozens of shoes through the membership programs. “We understand our love of shoes, that it’s not weird to have so many shoes, and you can never get enough.”
The clubs have more in common than monthly delivery of cute shoes: Four of the companies — ShoeDazzle, JustFabulous, Sole Society Inc. and ShoeMint — are headquartered in Los Angeles County, part of a growing crop of e-commerce fashion brands that is helping to raise the profile of the region’s fledgling start-up scene. Many are garnering big sales and investment dollars and have their sights set on adding more product categories and expanding internationally.
ShoeDazzle, co-founded in 2009 by Kim Kardashian, has raised $60 million from investors, including a $40-million round in May led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has invested in major tech companies such as Facebook and Groupon. Based in Santa Monica, ShoeDazzle expanded to Britain and South Korea this year and is launching in 10 other countries in 2012, co-founder Brian Lee said. In May, the brand said it had more than 3 million members.
Since launching in March 2010, JustFabulous has gained more than 4 million members nationwide and is posting $5.5 million in monthly sales. The company — which also sells handbags, denim and other products — announced in September that it had raised $33 million in new funding. Revenue and membership have increased 20% month over month this year, and the company expects to sell 2.5 million to 3 million pairs of shoes and handbags in 2012, JustFabulous co-CEO Adam Goldenberg said.
Santa Monica’s ShoeMint launched on Black Friday and three days later had sold out of its entire inventory of women’s shoes, which are designed by actress Rachel Bilson and Hollywood stylist Nicole Chavez. Parent company BeachMint said ShoeMint — its fourth e-commerce site — attracted about 80,000 pre-registrations and was its most successful website launch to date; 10,000 people are on the wait list to buy shoes.
Another competitor, downtown L.A.’s Sole Society, announced this month that it had been spun off from HauteLook, a “flash fashion” website owned by Nordstrom Inc., so company officials could better focus on growing the shoe business. Sole Society launched in March and today has nearly 500,000 members.
As young companies, the brands are still finding their footing. Some shoppers have complained that it’s too difficult to remember to opt out when they don’t feel like a new pair of shoes, or note that their showroom of styles appear to be the same regardless of what they filled out in their style questionnaires.
Company officials say they’re still tweaking the software behind the recommendations and note that the more consumers who join, the better the sites will become at predicting what they’ll like.
“The model will work well in any country where women love shoes,” ShoeDazzle’s Lee said. “I think that’s 99% of the world.”
andrea.chang@latimes.com
http://tourism9.com/
In a cyber twist to the traditional monthly sales clubs, shoe membership websites have become a hit among fashion-forward women, who say they bring together the convenience and affordability of shopping online with the personalized experience offered in a boutique.
“This is fashion of the future,” said celebrity fashion designer Kimora Lee Simmons, who recently signed on as president, creative director and an investor of JustFabulous Inc., an El Segundo membership club. “It speaks to the modern-day woman’s budget and lifestyle.”
Members register on sites such as ShoeDazzle.com Inc. or JustFabulous for free and take a fashion personality quiz — What outfit are you most likely to wear on a first date? Which celebrity’s closet would you most like to raid? — to determine their unique style preferences.
On the first of each month, members log in to their accounts to view a limited, customized showroom of shoes: five-inch gold platform heels for the Hollywood clubgoer, conservative flats for the girl next door, studded leather boots for the rocker chick. The shoes are designed in-house, often by a team of high-profile celebrities and stylists, and customers receive the pair of their choice starting at $39.95, including shipping. Members can skip a month if they don’t feel like receiving a new pair of shoes, provided they opt out (usually by the fifth of the month).
The member-only programs have quickly attracted hordes of loyal shoppers. The sites, subscribers say, are easy to use, are customer-friendly when it comes to returns and exchanges, and usually do a good job identifying what styles they like.
“It’s very addicting. I have a heel collection now; before, I probably had maybe like one or two pairs that lasted me years,” said Yucaipa resident Amber Venturina, 26, who joined ShoeDazzle in June and also became a member of JustFabulous. Now “I have to have shoes in every color.”
Shoe club officials say the websites make the process of buying shoes less overwhelming while bringing the elite service of a personal shopper to the masses.
“Not everyone has access to a stylist, but we can be a stylist through that technology and hopefully recommend the right products,” said Josh Berman, chief executive of BeachMint Inc., which operates newly launched shoe club ShoeMint. “Rather than going to an Amazon or Google and typing ‘shoes’ and having thousands of things to choose from, what we’re learning is consumers like to be curated and shown what is hot.”
But as fashion memberships surge in popularity, they’re adding to the increasing pressures on bricks-and-mortar merchants. Because shoe clubs sell directly to customers and don’t operate physical stores, they’re able to save on overhead costs such as staffing and rent, enabling the brands to price the shoes for about half of what they would cost at the mall, company officials estimated.
“We are in the midst of a reinvention of retail,” said Kasey Lobaugh, a principal at Deloitte Consulting who follows online shopping trends. “Retailers are being forced to innovate the business model. If they don’t, there is now a long list of nontraditional competitors who will.”
Another problem for old-school retailers: Many members are flocking to the shoe clubs’ Facebook pages and other social media sites to ask other shoppers for help choosing a style or pairing their latest purchase with the right outfit. That high level of interaction is creating tight-knit Web communities of shoe aficionados and replicating the in-store experience of shopping with a group of girlfriends, historically something that couldn’t be found online.
“I’ve made a lot of good friends from the shoe clubs. We keep in touch in real life: We email, we text, we call,” said Joyce Moore, 33, a Palmdale stay-at-home mom who has bought dozens of shoes through the membership programs. “We understand our love of shoes, that it’s not weird to have so many shoes, and you can never get enough.”
The clubs have more in common than monthly delivery of cute shoes: Four of the companies — ShoeDazzle, JustFabulous, Sole Society Inc. and ShoeMint — are headquartered in Los Angeles County, part of a growing crop of e-commerce fashion brands that is helping to raise the profile of the region’s fledgling start-up scene. Many are garnering big sales and investment dollars and have their sights set on adding more product categories and expanding internationally.
ShoeDazzle, co-founded in 2009 by Kim Kardashian, has raised $60 million from investors, including a $40-million round in May led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has invested in major tech companies such as Facebook and Groupon. Based in Santa Monica, ShoeDazzle expanded to Britain and South Korea this year and is launching in 10 other countries in 2012, co-founder Brian Lee said. In May, the brand said it had more than 3 million members.
Since launching in March 2010, JustFabulous has gained more than 4 million members nationwide and is posting $5.5 million in monthly sales. The company — which also sells handbags, denim and other products — announced in September that it had raised $33 million in new funding. Revenue and membership have increased 20% month over month this year, and the company expects to sell 2.5 million to 3 million pairs of shoes and handbags in 2012, JustFabulous co-CEO Adam Goldenberg said.
Santa Monica’s ShoeMint launched on Black Friday and three days later had sold out of its entire inventory of women’s shoes, which are designed by actress Rachel Bilson and Hollywood stylist Nicole Chavez. Parent company BeachMint said ShoeMint — its fourth e-commerce site — attracted about 80,000 pre-registrations and was its most successful website launch to date; 10,000 people are on the wait list to buy shoes.
Another competitor, downtown L.A.’s Sole Society, announced this month that it had been spun off from HauteLook, a “flash fashion” website owned by Nordstrom Inc., so company officials could better focus on growing the shoe business. Sole Society launched in March and today has nearly 500,000 members.
As young companies, the brands are still finding their footing. Some shoppers have complained that it’s too difficult to remember to opt out when they don’t feel like a new pair of shoes, or note that their showroom of styles appear to be the same regardless of what they filled out in their style questionnaires.
Company officials say they’re still tweaking the software behind the recommendations and note that the more consumers who join, the better the sites will become at predicting what they’ll like.
“The model will work well in any country where women love shoes,” ShoeDazzle’s Lee said. “I think that’s 99% of the world.”
andrea.chang@latimes.com
http://tourism9.com/
Golub Capital Provides One-Loan Financing to Support Freeman Spogli & Co.’s Acquisition of First Watch Restaurants, Inc.
NEW YORK , Dec. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Golub Capital announced today that it provided a GOLD financing debt facility to First Watch Restaurants, Inc. (“First Watch” or the “Company”) to support the acquisition of First Watch by Freeman Spogli & Co. (” Freeman Spogli “). GOLD financings are Golub Capital’s One-Loan Debt facilities.
Headquartered in Bradenton, Florida , First Watch is a leading operator of full service breakfast and lunch restaurants, located primarily in the Southeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. With 82 company-owned restaurants spanning nine states and 10 franchised locations in five states, First Watch is recognized for providing healthy and hearty breakfast and lunch offerings, served in a welcoming and friendly environment. First Watch specializes in the creation of traditional favorites such as pancakes, omelets, salads and sandwiches, as well as a variety of signature items, with all menu items freshly prepared to order. First Watch has received more than 200 “Best Of” accolades in markets across the country.
“We are excited to support Freeman Spogli ‘s investment in First Watch,” said Golub Capital Principal Troy Oder . “The Company’s management team has an excellent track record of growing the First Watch brand, and Freeman Spogli is the ideal sponsor to position the Company for its next phase of growth due to their extensive knowledge of the consumer sector.”
“We chose to partner with Golub Capital due to their expertise in the restaurant industry and their understanding of the unique financing needs of investors in the space,” noted John Roth , President, of Freeman Spogli & Co. “They were able to deliver a flexible financing solution that allowed us to complete the transaction within an extremely tight timeframe.”
About Golub CapitalWith over $5 billion in capital under management, Golub Capital is a leading provider of financing solutions for the middle market, including one-loan financings (through the firm’s proprietary GOLD facility), senior, second lien, and subordinated debt, preferred stock and co-investment equity. The firm also underwrites and syndicates senior credit facilities up to $200 million . Golub Capital’s hold sizes range up to $100 million per transaction.
Golub Capital is currently ranked as the #1 Middle Market Bookrunner for YTD 3Q 2011 by Thomson Reuters Loan Pricing Corporation. Golub Capital was named “Middle Market Lender of the Year” by Buyouts Magazine in 2009 and 2010. The firm was also honored as “Debt Financing Agent of the Year” by M&A Advisor in 2010. Golub Capital is a national firm with principal offices in Chicago and New York . For more information, please visit the firm’s website at golubcapital.com.
About Freeman Spogli & Co.Freeman Spogli & Co. is a private equity firm dedicated exclusively to investing in and partnering with management in consumer-related and distribution companies in the United States . Since its founding in 1983, Freeman Spogli has invested $3.0 billion of equity in 47 portfolio companies with aggregate transaction value of over $17 billion , and is currently making investments from FS Equity Partners VI, L.P. Freeman Spogli has offices in Los Angeles and New York . For additional information, visit freemanspogli.com.
http://tourism9.com/
Headquartered in Bradenton, Florida , First Watch is a leading operator of full service breakfast and lunch restaurants, located primarily in the Southeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. With 82 company-owned restaurants spanning nine states and 10 franchised locations in five states, First Watch is recognized for providing healthy and hearty breakfast and lunch offerings, served in a welcoming and friendly environment. First Watch specializes in the creation of traditional favorites such as pancakes, omelets, salads and sandwiches, as well as a variety of signature items, with all menu items freshly prepared to order. First Watch has received more than 200 “Best Of” accolades in markets across the country.
“We are excited to support Freeman Spogli ‘s investment in First Watch,” said Golub Capital Principal Troy Oder . “The Company’s management team has an excellent track record of growing the First Watch brand, and Freeman Spogli is the ideal sponsor to position the Company for its next phase of growth due to their extensive knowledge of the consumer sector.”
“We chose to partner with Golub Capital due to their expertise in the restaurant industry and their understanding of the unique financing needs of investors in the space,” noted John Roth , President, of Freeman Spogli & Co. “They were able to deliver a flexible financing solution that allowed us to complete the transaction within an extremely tight timeframe.”
About Golub CapitalWith over $5 billion in capital under management, Golub Capital is a leading provider of financing solutions for the middle market, including one-loan financings (through the firm’s proprietary GOLD facility), senior, second lien, and subordinated debt, preferred stock and co-investment equity. The firm also underwrites and syndicates senior credit facilities up to $200 million . Golub Capital’s hold sizes range up to $100 million per transaction.
Golub Capital is currently ranked as the #1 Middle Market Bookrunner for YTD 3Q 2011 by Thomson Reuters Loan Pricing Corporation. Golub Capital was named “Middle Market Lender of the Year” by Buyouts Magazine in 2009 and 2010. The firm was also honored as “Debt Financing Agent of the Year” by M&A Advisor in 2010. Golub Capital is a national firm with principal offices in Chicago and New York . For more information, please visit the firm’s website at golubcapital.com.
About Freeman Spogli & Co.Freeman Spogli & Co. is a private equity firm dedicated exclusively to investing in and partnering with management in consumer-related and distribution companies in the United States . Since its founding in 1983, Freeman Spogli has invested $3.0 billion of equity in 47 portfolio companies with aggregate transaction value of over $17 billion , and is currently making investments from FS Equity Partners VI, L.P. Freeman Spogli has offices in Los Angeles and New York . For additional information, visit freemanspogli.com.
http://tourism9.com/
2011年12月30日星期五
Win a Flight Anywhere in the World with Amble Resorts’ Travel Contest
CHICAGO , Dec. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Hopeful travelers are invited to share a personal, life-changing travel experience on Amble Resorts’ travel blog, The Ambler, for the chance to win a flight anywhere in the world. The individual who posts the winning entry will be rewarded with a free trip to the destination of their dreams in the form of a $1,500 travel voucher, valid anytime in 2012, on the airline of the winner’s choice.
By launching this contest, Amble Resorts is encouraging 2012 New Years ‘ resolutions to explore the world in search of adventure and immersion in place. It was an experience of this kind that first inspired Amble’s president, Benjamin Loomis , to found the eco-development company in 2007. Amble helps adventurous spirits from all over the globe to discover the unique cultural identities and incredible natural attributes of their chosen destinations while creating a community of travelers who share a passion to protect these precious resources.
“Travel is an intimate endeavor,” says Loomis. “You come away from a meaningful travel experience with your own perceptions and opinions. It’s these profoundly personal responses that we’re hoping everyone will share through the contest.” The contest reflects Amble’s mission to bring travelers into closer communion with the earth, other peoples, and each other. By publishing the contest entries as comments on The Ambler, Loomis hopes to spark conversations between travelers and travel enthusiasts who share a passion for adventure, culture, and the environment. This format also invites entrants to join The Ambler‘s growing travel community and read new articles published daily.
Last fall, Amble Resorts expanded their travel blog of three years by inviting travel writers and photographers to join them in their efforts to inspire and enlighten today’s most culturally sensitive and environmentally conscious travelers. Through informative articles, stunning photography, and firsthand experiences of travel writers from around the world, Amble is pioneering a new online source for travel advice. Going beyond traditional destination guides, The Ambler provides insider tips on adventures off the beaten path, lesser-known natural and cultural attractions, and secluded pieces of paradise hidden in popular tourism destinations, all presented with the ease and intimacy of a personal travel blog. The Ambler hopes to give a voice to today’s most discerning travelers and feed their appetite for life-changing travel in a forum that’s accessible to anyone with an interest in learning more about the world.
President Loomis envisions a future for The Ambler as a trusted resource for travelers from all over the world who want to find new meaning for their lives with every journey they take. Accordingly, Amble Resorts’ current development projects in Panama and Belize are designed to give travelers an intimate connection with the extraordinary natural surroundings of the location. “We’re blazing the trail to provide travelers with something they can’t find anywhere else: a luxury travel experience connected to the true spirit of a place,” says Loomis. “Our travelers respect the environment and local cultures; they recognize what is most precious in our world. We build resorts founded on these values while recognizing that the traveler’s time is precious, too. They want to be as close as possible to these life-changing experiences without sacrificing their time or comfort.”
Submissions to the Life-Changing Travel Contest will be accepted through January 15th, 2012 . The top ten finalists, as chosen by Amble Resorts, will be posted to The Ambler on January 18th, 2012 for the public to vote on their favorites through January 31st, 2012 , when the voting period will close. The life-changing travel experience that receives the most votes will be announced as the winner on February 1st , 2012.
Photos:
http://www.ereleases.com/pic/Travel-in-2012.jpg
http://www.ereleases.com/pic/Amble-travel-contest.jpg
About Amble Resorts:
Amble Resorts is an ecologically sensitive resort development company focused on providing travelers life-changing travel experiences in places of spectacular natural beauty and cultural significance. Those who want more out of travel, amble with us.
Amble Resorts is the developer of The Resort at Isla Palenque in the Gulf of Chiriqui, Panama .
Media contact: Emily Kinskey , Marketing Associate, Amble Resorts, ekk@amble.com, 773-769-1145
This press release was issued through eReleases(R). For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com/.
This article is from http://tourism9.com/
By launching this contest, Amble Resorts is encouraging 2012 New Years ‘ resolutions to explore the world in search of adventure and immersion in place. It was an experience of this kind that first inspired Amble’s president, Benjamin Loomis , to found the eco-development company in 2007. Amble helps adventurous spirits from all over the globe to discover the unique cultural identities and incredible natural attributes of their chosen destinations while creating a community of travelers who share a passion to protect these precious resources.
“Travel is an intimate endeavor,” says Loomis. “You come away from a meaningful travel experience with your own perceptions and opinions. It’s these profoundly personal responses that we’re hoping everyone will share through the contest.” The contest reflects Amble’s mission to bring travelers into closer communion with the earth, other peoples, and each other. By publishing the contest entries as comments on The Ambler, Loomis hopes to spark conversations between travelers and travel enthusiasts who share a passion for adventure, culture, and the environment. This format also invites entrants to join The Ambler‘s growing travel community and read new articles published daily.
Last fall, Amble Resorts expanded their travel blog of three years by inviting travel writers and photographers to join them in their efforts to inspire and enlighten today’s most culturally sensitive and environmentally conscious travelers. Through informative articles, stunning photography, and firsthand experiences of travel writers from around the world, Amble is pioneering a new online source for travel advice. Going beyond traditional destination guides, The Ambler provides insider tips on adventures off the beaten path, lesser-known natural and cultural attractions, and secluded pieces of paradise hidden in popular tourism destinations, all presented with the ease and intimacy of a personal travel blog. The Ambler hopes to give a voice to today’s most discerning travelers and feed their appetite for life-changing travel in a forum that’s accessible to anyone with an interest in learning more about the world.
President Loomis envisions a future for The Ambler as a trusted resource for travelers from all over the world who want to find new meaning for their lives with every journey they take. Accordingly, Amble Resorts’ current development projects in Panama and Belize are designed to give travelers an intimate connection with the extraordinary natural surroundings of the location. “We’re blazing the trail to provide travelers with something they can’t find anywhere else: a luxury travel experience connected to the true spirit of a place,” says Loomis. “Our travelers respect the environment and local cultures; they recognize what is most precious in our world. We build resorts founded on these values while recognizing that the traveler’s time is precious, too. They want to be as close as possible to these life-changing experiences without sacrificing their time or comfort.”
Submissions to the Life-Changing Travel Contest will be accepted through January 15th, 2012 . The top ten finalists, as chosen by Amble Resorts, will be posted to The Ambler on January 18th, 2012 for the public to vote on their favorites through January 31st, 2012 , when the voting period will close. The life-changing travel experience that receives the most votes will be announced as the winner on February 1st , 2012.
Photos:
http://www.ereleases.com/pic/Travel-in-2012.jpg
http://www.ereleases.com/pic/Amble-travel-contest.jpg
About Amble Resorts:
Amble Resorts is an ecologically sensitive resort development company focused on providing travelers life-changing travel experiences in places of spectacular natural beauty and cultural significance. Those who want more out of travel, amble with us.
Amble Resorts is the developer of The Resort at Isla Palenque in the Gulf of Chiriqui, Panama .
Media contact: Emily Kinskey , Marketing Associate, Amble Resorts, ekk@amble.com, 773-769-1145
This press release was issued through eReleases(R). For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com/.
This article is from http://tourism9.com/
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