Steak Media secures investment led by ProVen VCTs
Established in 2005, Steak Media has grown to be the second largest independent search agency with a turnover of £14.5m in its second year. For 2007, it has already achieved a high level of growth and market share with recent new business wins of British Gas and Time Out. Steak Media is currently shortlisted for ‘Agency of the Year’ for the upcoming Marketing Week Effectiveness Awards. Company founder and Director of Strategy, Duncan Parry is shortlisted as a finalist for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year ( Start Up Awards 07, announced October) and CEO Oliver Bishop was voted one of the 'Young Guns' 2006 by Growing Business for Entrepreneurs magazine (September 2006).
Beringea and the ProVen VCTs have a strong relationship with Steak Media's management team: Oliver Bishop, CEO; Tony Samios, COO Julian Walker, Sales Director; and Duncan Parry, Director of Strategy. The team were former employees of Espotting Ltd, a previous successful investment of ProVen VCT. Espotting founder Seb Bishop now serves as Steak Media’s chairman.
Oliver Bishop, CEO of Steak Media commented," After much interest from various VC firms we are delighted to welcome Beringea as investors in Steak Media. Having previously worked with them at Espotting, their corporate and commercial experience of the media sector will help Steak Media broaden its horizons. We decided to take our first round of funding at this time because of our strong market position and enormous potential. With this funding we can continue to develop the company, service our clients to the highest of standards and accelerate our growth strategy." The deal was led by Beringea director Jeff Bocan, who commented "We are excited to once again be partners with Steak's excellent management team, who have achieved stellar entrepreneurial growth in what we expect to remain a rapidly growing market. Leveraging their core expertise in search marketing, Steak has fantastic momentum in ramping up their client base -- Beringea is providing expansion capital to help fund Steak's ability to provide the most outstanding services to their clients and to enable the company to continue its exceptional growth."
Contact for Steak Media:
Nathalie Patel, Marketing Manager – 0207 420 3531
www.steakmedia.co.uk
Contact for Beringea Ltd:
Jane O’Connor, Marketing Manager – 020 7845 7826
About Steak Media
Steak Media is an expert digital media agency specialising in search engine marketing (SEM); media planning and buying; and other integrated online marketing strategies. Launched in February 2005, the company has been publicly recognized for the results it delivers for its clients. It ranked as the 2nd largest independent search agency in this year's NMA Marketing Services Guide (2007).
With over 50 years experience amongst them, the senior management team has a unique pedigree comprising expertise in both the digital media and SEM realms. The company founders were pioneers in paid search in Europe, having made their mark at Lycos Europe, one of the earliest search engines, and Espotting Media, one of the most successful dotcoms of recent years. Steak Media services a broad range of blue-chip clients, focussing on the highly competitive Internet finance, travel and retail sectors. Clients include: British Gas, Time Out, FCUK, JJB Sports and Swiftcover.com
For more information, visit www.steakmedia.co.uk.
About Beringea Ltd
Beringea Ltd. is an international private equity and investment banking firm with offices in London, Detroit, Los Angeles and Shanghai. Beringea is the manager of funds including Proven VCT, ProVen Growth & Income VCT, and Global Rights Fund II, amongst others.
For more information please visit www.beringea.com / www.provenvcts.com.
Registered In England and Wales No. 1478819
Beringea Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority FSA FRN: 138888
