Founders Factory chooses M&S as its retail investor in the UK

Date: 2018-07-24   Author: Saipriya Iyer  Category: #news

Founders Factory chooses M&S as its retail investor in the UK

Brent Hoberman, founder of Lastminute is set to up the ante in vertical market-specific accelerator construction with his new project, Founders Factory Retail, in collaboration with Marks & Spencer. Incidentally, M&S will be Founder Factory’s sole partner for the UK & European region.

As per sources, M&S will buy into different startups sourced from Founders Factory’s network which in turn will expose retail businesses in the region to new business models, technologies and entrepreneurial thinking. M&S will be the majority shareholder in the joint venture. According to M&S’s own admission, lately it is facing a bit of trouble in the market and the startup DNA might help revitalize the company, say sepculations.

According to Steve Rowe, Chief Executive at M&S, this collaboration will give them access to global network of startups, that will provide disruptive thinking to the operational methodology at a time when the business is seemingly undergoing a critical transformation. He added that Founders Factory has an excellent track record of staking into innovative technologies, products & creating successful firms.

Founders Factory’s Co-founder & Executive Chairman, Brent Hoberman said he was happy to collaborate with M&S, as their exclusive retail investor in the UK. He added the company’s experience and scale will help support budding founders. Furthermore, he stated that after more than 60 investments in last 2 years, the company has recognized the advantage of combining corporate scale and expertise with startup innovation.

For the record, Founders Factory was started by Brent Hoberman & Henry Lane Fox and has received capital from EasyJet, L’Oreal, Aviva, Guardian Media Group, and CSC. Along with accelerating companies Founders Factory also incubates many of them, thereby creating around 13 startups every year. Additionally, the firm invests in 35 startups annually with cash, support for 6 months, and commercial opportunities with its investors. So far, Founders Factory has backed 60 companies and aims to get to 220 in the next 5 years.



About Author


Saipriya Iyer linkdin-boxtwitter

Saipriya Iyer

Saipriya Iyer currently works as a content developer for AlgosOnline. A computer engineer by profession, she ventured into the field of writing for the love of playing with words. Having had a previous experience of 3 years under her belt, she has dabbled with website...

Read More

Post Recommendents

India-based Kaizen AI set to influence the $1.36 trillion GCC realty sector

Author: Pankaj Singh

Kaizen AI, a prominent technology firm that uses AI to revolutionize large-scale building projects, is entering the lucrative GCC real estate sector, where the value of planned and under-construction projects is projec...


Microsoft expands partnership with Oracle to Deliver Oracle Database Services

Author: Pankaj Singh

Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. have reportedly announced the availability of Oracle Database@Azure, which provides direct access to the Oracle database services operating on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure ...


Reliance Industries and NVIDIA join hands to advance AI in India

Author: Pankaj Singh

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd. has reportedly announced a partnership with U.S.-based chipmaker NVIDIA for advancing AI in India.

Apparently, Indi...