Mark Pearson (entrepreneur)

Last updated

Mark Pearson
Born1980 (age 43–44)

Mark Pearson (born 1980) is a London, United Kingdom-based entrepreneur and investor. He founded and served as CEO of Markco Media, a European discount network. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

In June 2014, Markco Media, the parent company of MyVoucherCodes, was acquired by Monitise plc for £55m. [4]

Early Life and Career

Pearson grew up on a council estate in Liverpool with his mother and sister. [5]

At age 23, Pearson founded Roses by Design, selling fresh rose petals with custom messages. [6] Through this venture, he discovered affiliate marketing when Interflora and Flowers Direct requested to place discount code banners on his website. [5]

In November 2006, aged 26, Pearson launched MyVoucherCodes with an initial investment of £300. [7] The business operated from his bedroom until 2009, when he established an office in Croydon, later relocating to central London in 2011. [3]

Investment activities

Pearson has invested approximately £5m across nine companies, with minimum investments of £100,000. [8]

His investment portfolio includes Shopwave, an iPad payment system for retailers, and Calq, a mobile analytics firm. He invested £1m in Ve Interactive, which expanded from 30 to 700 employees across 18 global offices. Ve Interactive reached a valuation of $3bn in June 2015 [9] before entering administration in April 2017. [10] A consortium including Pearson subsequently acquired the company for £2m. [11]

In October 2014, Warner Music Group acquired Playlists.net, another of Pearson's investments. [12]

Fuel ventures

In December 2013, Pearson and Paul Rous, a former Goldman Sachs corporate financier, established Fuel Ventures, an early-stage e-commerce investment fund and startup studio. [13]

The fund raised £539,900 through crowdfunding platform Seedrs [14] , with tennis player Andy Murray among its investors. [15]

Community engagement

In 2010, Pearson appeared on Channel 4's The Secret Millionaire, donating £115,000 to three Nottingham-based charities addressing gun crime and domestic violence. [3] [16]

In 2012, he established Hackathon London, connecting developers with investors and mentors. [17] He later sponsored the Young Rewired State Hackathon in Scotland when it faced cancellation. [18]

Recognition

The Sunday Times Rich List 2011 valued his fortune at £60m. [23]

Related Research Articles

Brent Shawzin Hoberman is a British entrepreneur and investor. During the dot-com boom, he co-founded lastminute.com with Martha Lane Fox in 1998, where he was CEO from its inception, before selling the business to Sabre in 2005 for $1.1bn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Calacanis</span> American businessman

Jason McCabe Calacanis is an American Internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and podcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TechCrunch</span> American technology news website

TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high-tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Jones (entrepreneur)</span> American entrepreneur and investor (born 1975)

Michael Jones is an American entrepreneur, investor and CEO of Science Inc.

Greycroft LP is an American venture capital firm. It manages over $2 billion in capital with investments in companies such as Bird, Bumble, HuffPost, Goop, Scopely, The RealReal, and Venmo. Greycroft was founded in 2006 by Alan Patricof, Dana Settle, and Ian Sigalow. The firm is headquartered in New York City, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology</span> School in Accra, Ghana

The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) is an Africa-wide technology entrepreneur training program, seed fund, and incubator headquartered in Accra, Ghana. The three-phased institution was founded in 2008 to provide training, investment, and mentoring for aspiring technology entrepreneurs with the goal of creating globally successful companies that create wealth and jobs locally in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">500 Global</span> U.S. startup accelerator

500 Global is an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai. The fund admitted a first "class" of twelve startups to its incubator office in Mountain View, California in February 2011. They expanded to a second class of 21 in June 2011 and a third class of 34 in October 2011. 500 Global has $2.3 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of March 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Suster</span>

Mark Suster is an American businessman and investor. He is a managing partner at Upfront Ventures, the largest venture capital firm in Los Angeles. Aside from his business career, Suster is also a prominent blogger in the American high-technology startup scene and venture capital world.

Blottr was a citizen journalism news website based in the United Kingdom and started in August 2010 by entrepreneur Adam Baker. Originally featuring hyperlocal news in London, the site grew to cover a total of eight UK cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Leicester and Manchester. In October 2011 Blottr expanded outside of the UK to Blottr France and Blottr Germany. Blottr peaked at more than 5000 contributors and more than 1.4 million unique visitors a month. Blottr was shut down in April 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ChinICT</span>

CHINICT is a conference including a Hackathon focused on the China tech innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. CHINICT takes place once a year at the end of May in Beijing at Tsinghua University Science Park.

Adzuna is a search engine for job advertisements. The company operates in 19 countries worldwide and the UK website aggregates job ads from several thousand sources.

Seedrs is an online equity crowdfunding company, headquartered in East London's Tech City, founded in 2009 and launched by Jeff Lynn and Carlos Silva in 2012. Since 2022 it has been a subsidiary of American crowdfunding company Republic.

Seedcamp is a European seed-stage venture capital fund, headquartered in London, launched in May 2007 by a group of 30 European investors. The fund's Managing Partners are Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal.

MicroVentures is an equity crowdfunding website that offers investments in early stage companies. It connects accredited investors with startups, businesses and services looking to raise funds or participate in select secondary market opportunities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AngelList</span> Website connecting startups, angel investors, and job-seekers

AngelList is an American software company for fundraising and connecting startups, angel investors, and limited partners. Founded in 2010, it started as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed seed funding. Since 2015, the site allows startups to raise money from angel investors free of charge. Created by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi in 2010, Avlok Kohli has been leading AngelList as its CEO since 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monitise</span>

Monitise was a British fintech company that provided mobile banking services and technology for mobile phones to financial institutions.

Carwow is an online marketplace for buying and selling cars. It uses the reverse marketplace model to remove the need for customers to negotiate with dealers when buying or selling their cars. When buying a new car, users choose the car they want, along with the various specifications and features, and then receive offers directly from dealers. When selling a car, users upload some basic details about their car, after which different car dealers are invited to bid to buy the car directly from them. It also provides information to prospective purchasers and gives feedback on rogue dealers. The company has a YouTube page, run by motor journalist and Carwow's Chief Content Officer Mat Watson, where different cars are reviewed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MyVoucherCodes</span> Online voucher code company

MyVoucherCodes.co.uk is an online voucher code company, currently owned by Future plc.

Republic is a global financial firm operating an enterprise-focused digital merchant bank and a network of retail-focused investment platforms. Backed by Morgan Stanley, Valor Equity Partners, Galaxy Interactive, Hashed, AngelList and other leading institutions, Republic boasts a portfolio of over 2,500 companies and a community of 3 million members from over 150 countries. More than $2.6 billion has been deployed through investment platforms, funds, and firms within the Republic family of companies. It is headquartered in New York City and has operations in the US, the UK, the EU, the UAE, South Korea, and Singapore.

References

  1. ↑ "HushHush Jumps On The Daily Deals Bandwagon: Designer Fashion, Interiors, Gardening, Food & Drink". TechCrunch. 21 November 2012.
  2. ↑ "Mark Pearson: Britain's coupon king". Real Business. 7 April 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 "Third time lucky". newbusiness.co.uk. 24 September 2012. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012.
  4. ↑ "Citizen Journalism is alive and well in the UK – Blottr scores Angel investment". TechCrunch. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  5. 1 2 "The king of discount voucher codes". BBC News. 19 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "Third time lucky - Mark Pearson".
  7. ↑ "Mark Pearson: £300 start-up to £10m turnover". Businesszone.co.uk. 19 August 2011. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  8. ↑ "'I left school at 16 and sold my business for £55m. Now I want to help other young entrepreneurs'".
  9. ↑ Ahmed, Murad (14 June 2015). "Europe incubates tech's new billion-dollar babies". Financial Times.
  10. ↑ "The story behind Michelle Mone's appointment to board of Ve Global". 22 January 2018.
  11. ↑ Titcomb, James (2 September 2018). "Rescued Ve Interactive to raise £15m as it seek to break even". The Telegraph.
  12. ↑ "Playlists.net Acquired by Warner Music Group". 16 October 2014.
  13. ↑ O'Hear, Steve (May 2015). "After Exiting Markco Media, Mark Pearson Launches New London-Based VC Fund And Startup Studio". TechCrunch.
  14. ↑ Kharpal, Arjun (20 May 2015). "Want to be a VC? All you need is $150". CNBC.
  15. ↑ Barber, Lynsey (19 August 2015). "Andy Murray invests in three British tech startups through Seedrs equity crowdfunding platform - Tossed, Trillenium and Fuel Ventures Fund". City AM.
  16. ↑ "Interview: Entrepreneur Mark Pearson on surrogacy, diversity and working with Gordon Ramsey". 26 September 2014.
  17. ↑ "Hackathon London | Events". EN for Business. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  18. ↑ Askeland, Erikka (26 November 2012). "People: Giant wood statue gets VisitScotland guests guessing". The Scotsman. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  19. ↑ "Real Business - Growing Business Awards 2010". Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  20. ↑ [ dead link ]
  21. ↑ "Mark Pearson: MyVoucherCodes - Startups.co.uk". 10 October 2011.
  22. ↑ "Previous winners of th Digital Entrepreneur of the year awards". www.digital-entrepreneur.co.uk. Archived from the original on 29 July 2010.
  23. ↑ Tripathi, Shruti (16 June 2012). "The interview: Mark Pearson, MyVoucherCodes.co.uk | Features". LondonlovesBusiness.com. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.