Property tycoon Nick Candy invests in Vibe Tickets
British property developer Nick Candy has invested more than £2 million in UK ticket resale firm Vibe Tickets, acquiring a 23% stake in holding company Vibe Group.
Candy – who with his brother Christian is behind projects such as One Hyde Park and NoHo Square (now Fitzroy Place) in London – is funding his investment in Vibe through his private fund, Candy Ventures. Vibe’s founder and CEO, Luke Massie, remains the majority shareholder.
Lancashire-based Vibe was bought out of administration by Massie, in 2018, and he later gifted equity in the new company to its original investors. Other shareholders include Scott Fletcher MBE and investment firm Vela Technologies.
Candy’s investment will support Vibe’s new mobile payments platform, Vibe Bay, according to Business Cloud, as well as Vibe Tickets, a community-orientated ticketing marketplace.
“We are gathering momentum at an incredible pace”
Says Massie: “This is a significant milestone for the Vibe Group. To have the backing [of] Nick Candy and his experienced team at Candy Ventures, as well as the continued support from Scott and Vela, is a huge endorsement for the brand.
“We are gathering momentum at an incredible pace and making major progress in product development. We always put the consumer first and build products that add value to their everyday lives.”
“I recognise a lot of entrepreneurial qualities in Luke that I know are crucial for a tech start-up to achieve great things,” adds Candy. “He has identified real demand from consumers and developed some game-changing products.
“Candy Ventures is excited for the potential of this investment.”
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Bankrupt Crowdmix sold to main investor
Crowdmix has been sold to a company controlled by its main investor, property tycoon Nick Candy.
Crowdmix, a social network positioning itself as an ‘Instagram for music’, entered administration last month after burning through over £14 million in funding.
Business Insider reports that the company’s assets were auctioned off to 52 Grosvenor Street Limited, a company owned by Candy Ventures. Candy (pictured) has invested over £8m in the UK-based start-up, which employed 130 staff, since its founding in 2014 by Ian Roberts and Gareth Ingham.
Analysing its failure, MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan said last month that Crowdmix “convinced itself it could build an entire new social network around music” and gave three reasons as to why that wasn’t the case: Music is “not important enough” for people to build a social network around; “as Google learned the hard way [with Google+]”, there is only room for one major social network (Facebook); and social networks are “yesterday’s technology”: “Messaging apps have replaced social networks for gen Z and younger millennials,” said Mulligan.
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Music social network Crowdmix in administration
Crowdmix, a UK-based start-up positioning itself as an ‘Instagram for music’, has entered administration after burning through over £14 million in funding.
The news was broken to Crowdmix’s 130 staff yesterday afternoon, reports Business Insider’s James Cook, after the company failed to secure emergency investment over the weekend.
The company, founded in 2014 by Ian Roberts and Gareth Ingham, soft-launched an invite-only version of its app in May, not long after laying off 8% of its staff and just before Roberts departed. The app, a music-focused social network, presents users with a feed of posts from other users, including 2,000 ‘influencers’ (musicians and celebrities), and also offers music streaming capabilities through services such as Spotify and Google Play Music.
“As Google learned the hard way, there is only room for one major-scale social network”
Crowdmix raised £14m in investment last year alone, including £6.5m from property tycoon Nick Candy. In October it hired Rob Wells, former head of digital at Universal Music Group, who stated that although “initially skeptical, I quickly became incredibly excited by the scale of Crowdmix’s ambition”.
Cook reports that the company intends to sell itself as a going concern (a business making a profit without the threat of future bankruptcy) but says it may only be able to auction off its intellectual property.
Mark Mulligan’s MIDiA Research says Crowdmix “convinced itself it could build an entire new social network around music” and gives three reasons as to why that wasn’t the case: Music is “not important enough” for people to build a social network around; “as Google learned the hard way [with Google+]”, there is only room for one major social network (Facebook); and social networks are “yesterday’s technology”: “Messaging apps have replaced social networks for gen Z and younger millennials,” says Mulligan.
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