$11m investment into the online social networking site WAYN
The ebizlaw team acted for Esprit Capital Partners LLP on its role as lead investor on an $11,000,000 investment into WAYN. Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com, also invested and will join the board as Chairman in January 2007.
WAYN operates an interactive networking website which enables the travelling community to keep in touch and to exchange information on places visited and to be visited. WAYN was set up in 2002 by co-founders Peter Ward, Jerome Touze and Michael Lines and has been dubbed the “new Friends Re-united” by industry insiders. The website has over 9 million users in over 200 countrie.
In addition to Esprit Capital Partners and Brent Hoberman, the future growth potential of WAYN also attracted an impressive list of other investors as part of the fund raising exercise including industry heavyweights Adrian Critchlow and Andy Phillips (co-founders of Active Hotels), David Soskin (CEO of Cheapflights) and Constant Tedder (co-founder and managing director of Jagex Ltd).
The investment monies will be utilised to create new revenue streams and expand its product offerings and geographical scope. In addition to raising substantial working capital, WAYN has also strengthened its board by the appointment of Stuart Chapman of Esprit Capital Partners as a non-executive director.
Stuart Chapman of Esprit Capital Partners commented, “Fox Williams provided first class support, showing an appreciation of the legal and commercial issues surrounding online communities.“