Pictured above: Polly Gowers, CEO of
Everyclick
A West Midlands' web-based business that helps charities
fundraise has fundraised itself - gaining the support of Midven's
Early Advantage Fund.
Everyclick, which was founded in Gloucestershire in 2005 and
will relocate to Warwickshire, has developed an online search
engine that pays a percentage of the sponsored search fees to
charities. Everyclick.com allows users to raise money for charities
simply by conducting free searches for information.
Midven is investing £125,000 from the Early Advantage Fund
in Everyclick as part of a funding round of £480,000. The
£8 million Early Advantage Fund, backed by Advantage West
Midlands and the European Regional Development Fund, is aimed at
early stage companies in the West Midlands and must be matched by
private investment.
Duncan Kerr, Investment Director of the Early Advantage Fund at
Midven, said: "Everyclick is a great example of a business that
sees its future in the West Midlands and recognises the
opportunities that exist in the region.
"Some 70% of the UK and US population give to charity, but only
2% of this occurs online. Everyclick is making it easy for the
public to give and charities to benefit. It's an innovative company
with great prospects."
Everyclick is believed to be the only platform that enables the
user to choose their favourite charity to support from more than
200,000 UK charities and can be extended to all 1.8 million
non-profit organisations in the US. It was voted Website of the
Year in 2008 and a Tech Media Top 100 company in 2009.
Microsoft has recently piloted Everyclick Technology to support
its new search engine Bing through a Sports Relief Campaign it is
conducting. Searches, which attract sponsored results, trigger a
donation to the charity and a percentage payment to Everyclick.
Everyclick has also extended its offering by allowing users to
make payments to more than 200,000 registered UK charities and to
sponsor upcoming fundraisers.
Everyclick CEO, Polly Gowers, said: "This investment from the
Early Advantage Fund has really given us the boost we needed. We
are now able to look into new opportunities and ventures that
simply would not have been available to us before. Everyclick has a
great future ahead and it's fantastic to receive support from one
of the Midland's leading fund managers."
Midven manages five funds in total, of which four invest only in
West Midlands' companies.