PredictiveIntent Poised for the Future
19 November 2009
PredictiveIntent have defied the recession and succeeded in raising equity finance from SWAIN (South West Angel and Investor Network) angels. Stuart Swift and Neil Hamilton co-founded the company in March this year and engaged with SWAIN in order to secure the financing necessary to bring the proposition to market.
The number of people using mobiles is growing dramatically and indeed it is predicted that by 2010 more people will be using mobile devices to access the internet than a traditional personal computer. Mobile internet users tend to have less time to search and browse for content and the small screen size reduces the amount of information visible to them. It is therefore imperative that providers of mobile internet sites can establish what a customer wants and present relevant content to them in seconds, thus quickly increasing the odds of converting a “browser” to a “buyer”.
This is where PredictiveIntent comes in. PredictiveIntent can be simply described as the mobile Amazon; they can gather information on specific users such as their age, gender and behaviour tendencies allowing them to specifically tailor content to the end user. For example if someone uses their mobile phone to download an Arsenal screen saver, next time they look on the screen saver website, Arsenal pictures will appear first.
PredictiveIntent first came to SWAIN looking for investment in May 2009 and 5 months later, succeeded in raising finance through Callagenix Limited, which is owned by two new investors to SWAIN. Since raising finance PredictiveIntent have moved forward rapidly, doubling their number of staff and building their list of potential customers even in the recession.
When asked how Neil found the whole process of raising finance, he said, “We found the process slower than expected but in hindsight everything was arranged as fast as possible, giving us the right amount of time to prepare and have a practice presentation in front of a SWAIN Expert Panel. It also gave investors enough time to hear of our business and for their interest to be sparked. We had a fantastic amount of interest after the forum and were lucky enough to be put in contact with our current angels who are perfect for our business as both own their own large business in the telecom sector. We originally choose to go for angel funding as venture capital funds won’t consider you if you are pre-revenue and banks just aren’t lending, so when we heard of SWAIN from South West Ventures we thought we would have a go and see if anyone might be interested.”
Philip Tellwright, Managing Director of SWAIN said “I’m always delighted when a company is successful in raising finance and Predictive Intent is an ideal example of a company who is growing fast despite the current environment. I look forward to watching their process and would like to wish them the best for the future.”