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Andy Murray has invested in UK startups WeSwap and Perkbox through the Seedrs crowdfunding platform
Andy Murray celebrates a win during the men’s singles gold medal match against Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina at the Olympic Tennis Centre on August 14, 2016.
Tennis star Andy Murray has backed two more early stage UK tech companies on crowdfunding platform Seedrs, bringing his startup portfolio up to 17 companies.
The world number two invested an undisclosed amount in perks and benefits scheme Perkbox and peer-to-peer travel money platform WeSwap, helping them on their way towards their crowdfunding goals.
In return for his investment, the Wimbledon winner has taken an unknown amount of equity in each of the businesses in the hope that they’ll grow considerably.
“I’m continuing to grow my portfolio through Seedrs and have tried to choose companies from different sectors as much as possible,” said Murray in a statement.
“I was interested in Perkbox as I employ a number of people through my own sports management company, the 77 Group, as well as a number of independent contractors like physios, coaches and trainers. I’m sure they’ll all be wanting to hear lots more about Perkbox. WeSwap was interesting to me because I travel so much around the world – I thought this was a really clever idea and could immediately see the gap in the market for this business to work.”
Zoopla
Zoopla CEO Alex Chesterman has also invested in Perkbox.
Perkbox quickly surpassed its £1.5 million target on Seedrs and is currently overfunding by 270% with more than £4 million raised through 230 investors in just four days. Other investors in the startup include VC firm Draper Esprit and Alex Chesterman, the CEO and cofounder of property website Zoopla.
Founded in 2015, Perkbox claims that it already has over 300,000 paying members including British Gas, BUPA, and Deliveroo. It also says it has generated more than £14 million in revenues since launch.
WeSwap has raised a total of £1.8 million from over 2,200 individual investors including Ascot Capital and is currently overfunding by 185%. In the past 12 months, the startup claims to have grown by 204%, attracting over 200,000 new users in the process.
Jeff Lynn, CEO and cofounder of Seedrs, said in a statement: “It’s great to see how active Andy has become in early-stage investment and his recent investments on Seedrs into Perkbox and WeSwap reaffirm this. He is a great example of an investor who understands this asset class and the importance of building a broad investment portfolio, into which these two disruptive tech brands will add even more diversity.”
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