Crowdfunding on Seedrs now is a novel approach for a startup incubator. Incubus is an incubator program located on a traditional London double decker bus.
Founded by two entrepreneurs with startup experience, George Johnston and Rishi Chowdhury, the aim of Incubus is to develop young innovators to start and grow companies. The business was founded after seeing the lack of support for young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 25. They will offer participants mentors, workshops, resources and their network of connections. Incubus wants to assist in the development of entrepreneurs who will continue on to lead and inspire others. Their network of partners and sponsors includes well known names such as Rackspace and KPMG. Incubus will also offer up to program participants an optional three month paid experience to work at successful London startups like Huddle, Wobu, signkick and more.
The program will run over a 3 or 6 month period. Johnston and Chowdhury are prepping to launch this coming summer. The campaign has already raised over 40% of their crowdfunding goal of £50,000 or 15% equity in the company. They have captured support of some notable investors too – Seedrs founder and CEO Jeff Lynn has backed the company.
I’ve invested in IncuBusLDN through @Seedrs. Check out its campaign at http://t.co/hVIOTMqIkn
— Jeff Lynn (@jeffseedrs) April 10, 2014
Chowdry commented on their decision to go with Seedrs;
We chose Seedrs because we feel we have a good offering for investors. We take equity in all our startups. This ensures we’re looking to help startups with their long term future as well as meaning we benefit from exits of any of our startups in the future. As do our investors. With over 20 startups joining us each year that is a big opportunity for investors to see multiple returns.
Incubus hopes to evolve into an entrepreneurial hub – growing the concept to other communities in the UK -and perhaps to other countries. They are accepting applications to their program now.
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