VCT News
ProVen VCTs Invest in Imagestate
19 October 2007 - London - Beringea Ltd, manager of the ProVen VCTs, is pleased to announce a £2 million expansion capital deal with Imagestate - one of the world's leading image licensing companies.
Imagestate offers royalty free and rights managed stock photography images and other bespoke image services to a range of clients world-wide. Imagestate catalogues include more than one million digitally available stock images and specialist image collections, which are offered through the company's website and its global network of agents, spanning 70 countries. Imagestate is based in London, with a sales office in New York.
The company has a strong customer base and operates through one of the world's largest independent distribution networks. Imagestate Media's CEO, Sheldon Marshall, has extensive experience of stock image businesses, including VCG which was sold to Getty for $220 million. Marshall as CEO of Heritage Partners, acquired the business assets of Imagestate in 2006, a company he originally co-founded and merged the two businesses, renaming the entire group 'Imagestate Media'.
The recent expansion capital funding from Beringea, totalling £2 million, was provided by Beringea's two VCT funds: ProVen VCT and ProVen Growth & Income VCT. The deal was executed by Jeff Bocan on behalf of Beringea, with legal advice provided by Speechly Bircham, and Due Diligence by Andrew Thompson of Hurst Morrison Thompson.
The investment will enable Imagestate to further expand its already comprehensive digital content base and extend Imagestate's offering of still images, to motion and other rich media content.
Jeff Bocan of Beringea Ltd commented "We are extremely pleased with our investment in Imagestate. The short-term growth opportunities of this recently consolidated business are excellent, particularly under the deeply experienced management team led by Mr. Marshall. The long- term attractiveness of this investment is also substantial, given the strength of Imagestate's global distribution platform and their extensive image library. We look forward to helping Imagestate to expand aggressively in the realm of motion and other digital media to meet the needs of the rapidly growing internet advertising market."
Sheldon Marshall, CEO, Imagestate commented: "This round of funding will enable Imagestate to provide our clients with better access to our full digital catalogue. The digital content base of professional still and motion based imagery, will be expanded comprehensively over the coming months. Imagestate is well positioned to be at the forefront of the next generation of image and content distribution. We look forward to a strong period of growth over the next three years."
About Beringea
Beringea is an international venture capital firm with offices in London and Detroit. In the UK Beringea manages ProVen VCT, ProVen Health VCT, ProVen Growth & Income VCT and Global Rights Fund II. Beringea launched its first VCT in 1996, making it one of the most experienced VCT managers in the UK. ProVen Growth & Income and ProVen VCT are highest performing VCTs of their launch years, respectively, according to www.taxefficientreview.com. For more information please visit www.provenvcts.co.uk.