Coolabi, Chapman backer reveals £40m fund

A British financial firm that has invested kids TV properties Poppy Cat and The Clangers has launched a £40 million (US$61 million) fund the UK’s creative industries.

Edge Investment has launched the Edge Creative Enterprise Fund, with support from the British government. This will look to invest in “high growth” companies in the creative industries sector.

The fund comprises private sector equity from “leading institutions and high net worth individuals”, with a large investment coming from the government’s British Business Bank.

Edge said the fund would “nurture and assist creative businesses to grow” by providing “crucial capital and mentoring skills to stimulate growth and innovation”. Small- and medium-sized companies that work to commercialise intellectual property are the priority.

Edge’s management team believes the British creative industry can create “scalable revenues”, with the sector accounting for “approximately 10%” of the UK’s entire economy, and 2,550,000 jobs.

The fund is targeting a minimum of three times return for its private investors over its seven-to-ten-year life cycle.

“Our view is that a high degree of sector knowledge mitigates risk and also allows us to assess the most promising opportunities and most talented executives,” said Edge Investments CEO David Glick (pictured).

“There are nearly 160,000 creative industries businesses in Britain yet despite being in this high growth sector, many of them find it difficult to attract adequate capital to maximise their potential. Our new Edge Creative Enterprise Fund aims to fill that funding gap.”

Edge is best known as a key investor in Coolabi, the London-based IP firm that holds the rights to Poppy Cat, which airs on Nick Jr in the UK and on various channels around the world, and coproduced The Clangers, which recently debuted on preschool channel CBeebies and Sprout in the US.

It also bought into Chapman Entertainment in 2011 after the Fifi and the Flowertots producer ran into financial difficulty.

Glick, a veteran entertainment industry dealmaker, launched Edge in 2006. His boardroom team includes Elton John’s manager, Frank Presland; chairman of DreamWorks Classics predecessor Entertainment Rights Robin Miller; and music impresario Harvey Goldsmith.