MMC Ventures invests £2 million in Clash-Media - the UK's number one online lead generation network

13 June 2007 - MMC Ventures (MMC), a venture capital firm which invests in early-stage, fast-growth companies, today announced that it has made an equity investment of £2 million in Clash-Media, an online lead generation business based in London. Online lead generation is one of the fastest-growing areas of direct marketing, providing high quality, targeted sales leads for business-to-consumer sales organisations. This investment will enable Clash-Media to increase its salesforce in the UK and establish a global platform by extending into the European and US markets.

Clash-Media was founded in March 2006 by Simon Wajcenberg, founder of TMN Media, an AIM-listed email marketing business. Clash-Media is currently the UK's number one lead generation network with several blue chip clients such as AIG, Masterfoods, Hewlett Packard and Toyota.

Lead generation is still a nascent market in the UK. However, market data for the US shows that in 2006 the lead generation market was valued at about $1billion, and was growing at the rate of circa 70 per cent per annum. Clash-Media is well positioned to increase its market share with a unique lead and data network. This gives clients a single access point to multiple publishers, who collect and deliver leads which are filtered and cleaned using proprietary Clash-Media technology. This sophisticated software enables Clash-Media to deliver high volumes of quality leads from a broad mass-market pool.  

MMC's investment has been accompanied by the addition to the Clash-Media board of Stephen Hunt, formerly European Finance Director at Advertising.com, as Finance Director. The Clash-Media board also benefits from the experience of angel investor and Non-Executive Director, Steve Umberger, who was responsible for setting up several of the global operations for Valueclick, now one of the world’s largest online marketing businesses.

"We are delighted to be investing in Clash-Media which we think is a star business - it is a market leader in a fast-growing niche," said Ben Richardson, Investment Director at MMC Ventures who led the deal. "Online marketing continues to grow exponentially both in the UK and abroad. With such a strong management team, Clash-Media is in an excellent position to capitalise on this opportunity."

"Online lead generation has become increasingly important as more and more consumers are using phone and postal preference services as blanket opt outs from traditional direct marketing campaigns," commented Simon Wajcenberg, CEO, Clash-Media. "The investment from MMC will allow us to expand our leadership in this important market at a time of massive growth when we expect the UK online lead generation market to double by 2009."

For more information please contact:
Louise Sambells
IBA - PR for Clash-Media
Tel: 01780 721433
lsambells@iba-europe.com

Notes for editors:
Simon Wajcenberg
Simon founded Clash-Media in March 2006. He has worked for several years in online marketing and already has experience of founding an online marketing business: in 1999 he founded TMN Media, an AIM-listed email marketing business. Prior to establishing Clash-Media, Simon was Commercial Director for an advertising agency and Sales Director for PDV, an online direct marketing business.

Stephen Hunt
Stephen joined Clash-Media as Finance Director in April 2007. He has experience in the sector as former Head of UK Finance at Uswitch and European FD for Advertising.com, where he worked for six years.

Steve Umberger
Steve is NED of Clash-Media and an angel investor in the company. As director and angel investor of Valueclick, one of the world’s largest online marketing businesses (listed on Nasdaq with market cap of $2.5 billion), he was responsible for setting up their London, Paris, Munich, Sao Paulo and Montreal operations.

MMC Ventures Ltd (MMC) is a venture capital firm which invests in fast-growing young companies where it believes it can add value and help accelerate that growth. It has substantial capital available through managed Funds and a Syndicate of over 50 experienced business angel investors who provide mentor capital to portfolio companies. MMC is a generalist investor with a focus on growth and is therefore particularly interested in healthcare, financial services, technology and business support services. For both healthcare and financial services, MMC has distinguished advisory boards to help identify sector trends and facilitate deal flow. Founded in 2000, MMC has made 17 investments, two of which have exited on AIM. It seeks to make two to four new investments each year in companies requiring initial funding of £500,000 to £5 million, and has the capacity to follow its money in further rounds of funding. For further information: www.mmcventures.com

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