Welcome to the second year of 4iP’s three year pilot. We’ve been very busy since we launched the fund in October 2008 and we’re immensely proud of the talented and promising teams we’ve had the pleasure of working with to date.
We’ve been busily updating our investments page with an overview of our live and launched projects and there are a number of other exciting products currently under development that we’ll announce here in due course.
Learning by doing
During our first year at 4iP we focussed heavily on experimenting with innovation and new talent. Over 80% of our investments were made in companies and people who have never worked with Channel 4 before, with over 60% based outside London. In 2010 we’re going to track down even more of you with great ideas and brilliant ambitions to continue this trend.
We’re pleased to have worked with a fantastic range of partners across the UK to co-fund and support the projects and companies backed by 4iP in 2009. Over two thirds of our investments were co-funded with our partners and we’re keen to find even more shared opportunities in 2010. We’d like to thank all our partners for their hard work and for sharing our vision of nurturing great talent to deliver sustainable, viable and most importantly, engaging digital media with public value.
Joining the dots
The New Year provides a great opportunity for 4iP to translate the knowledge gathered during 2009 and improve its operating and investing models to deliver further public value.
We’ll communicate specific priorities for 2010 via this blog and at events throughout the year but we’ll be continuing our search for innovative, scalable, challenging and cheeky tools and services that:
a) hold those with power and money to account; or
b) help you perform an MOT on your life.
One of the recent changes here at 4iP has been the shape of our team. Whilst we’ll remain a team of seven, at the end of 2009 we bid a fond farewell to Ewan McIntosh, Digital Commissioner for Scotland, NI and the North-East, who goes on to pursue a number of exciting new opportunities.
Ewan was the first member of the 4iP team; joining in late summer 2008. During his 18 months with the fund he was responsible for seeding the 38minutes digital media professional social network for Scotland and NI, working closely with our partners at Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Screen, Northern Ireland Screen and Northern Film & Media and spearheaded 4iP investments in these exciting projects:
- Central Station
- MirrorMe
- You Booze You Looze
- FestBuzz
- Phabling
We wish Ewan every success in his future endeavours and thank him for his fantastic contribution to 4iP.
Our remaining Digital Commissioning Managers (Dan Heaf, Lucy Wurstlin and Claire McArdle) will now cover Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North-East. If you’re based in one of these regions and would like to submit an investment proposal to 4iP - the process remains unchanged, simply submit your idea via our submission system and we’ll be in touch.
We’ll continue to attend events and meet-ups in those regions and if you’re organising one please do get in touch with us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and we’ll let you know if we can come along.
In addition, one of our Digital Commissioning Managers and I will be in Glasgow on the last Thursday and Friday of each month. We’ll be meeting with the companies behind existing 4iP projects, catching up with our partners and most importantly, seeking out new people with exciting investment opportunities. Please do get in touch via .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you’d like to arrange a meeting. We’ll post precise dates on this blog in the next week or so.
Finally we’re looking for a new team member to support our core operations. As our investment portfolio grows we’re keen to maximise the benefits and opportunities for every company within it. We are currently offering the position of Investment Analyst and full details can be found here.
Watch this space
We plan to be very busy throughout 2010 and will be kicking things off shortly with some calls to action. We’d love to hear from you when we do.
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