North West Business Briefs
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a major entertainment and sports agency headquartered in Los Angeles, has signed Manchester-based audio-on-demand company Crowd Network.
CAA will represent Crowd Network worldwide to identify and create opportunities ranging from brand partnerships and developing new IP, to live events, film, television, and publishing.
Launched in September, Crowd Network has already produced a slate of six podcasts, with more to follow in January. These include: Murder in House Two, a 15-year journalistic investigation into the 2005 Haditha massacre by US Marines; The Joe Marler Show, where the England rugby star meets interesting people doing interesting things; and The Mentor, a 12-week challenge for young people from under-represented backgrounds to end 2020 on a high through mentoring from businessman Ric Lewis.
The company’s founders include CEO Mike Carr, former editor of BBC Radio Sport, content director Steve Jones, an award-winning BBC radio and podcast producer, creative director Tom Fordyce, the former chief sports writer for the BBC and one third of That Peter Crouch Podcast, and talent director Louise Gwilliam, former rugby union producer for BBC 5Live.
“The CAA team completely understands our model and have brought a huge amount of experience and knowledge to bear which has already added real value,” said Mike Carr.
He added: “We are aiming to be Europe’s largest audio-on-demand network while developing a slate of trailblazing content. To do that we need to surround ourselves with partners that are leaders in their fields and that we trust – and in CAA that’s exactly what we’ve got.”
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Tom Dunlop
Manchester-based developer and provider of software for the legal sector, Summize, has secured an additional £1m investment in a funding round led by NPIF-Maven Equity Finance.
NPIF-Maven Equity Finance, which is part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund and managed by Maven Capital Partners, originally invested £500,000 in Summize in March 2019.
This follow-on investment includes £500,000 from the Government’s Future Fund and additional capital from tech investor Charles Sharland. It will help the business to grow its customer base both at home and overseas.
Established in 2018, Summize is a lightweight piece of software used in the contract lifecycle by both in-house and private practice legal teams, as well as SMEs. It enables users to upload multiple contracts and summarise key points instantly, saving clients up to 85% in time cost per review, and build bespoke clauses, making the contract review process more flexible and relevant to each legal team or business’s needs.
Founder and CEO, Tom Dunlop, said: “Since bringing our product to market, we’ve seen an incredible demand for our services that has only accelerated, despite the current economic climate. As a result, we’ve welcomed a roster of new clients at home and overseas and have been able to start diversifying our offering with a new partner programme and managed contract service.”
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Lookers
Altrincham car dealerships group Lookers said it is unlikely to publish its interim results for 2020 this year.
In an update to the stock exchange the group said: “Lookers intends to publish its unaudited 2020 interim results as soon as possible. However, it is unlikely that these will be finalised before the end of this calendar year.”
The group only published its delayed accounts for the year to December 31, 2019, last month on November 25, which will be considered by shareholders at a general meeting of the company on December 28, 2020.
These results had been subject to audit investigations by Grant Thornton, aided by the group’s internal team and its auditor, Deloitte. The investigations identified a cash expenses fraud which led to a loss of £327,000 in a single division and which accumulated over several years.
The group also announced the appointment of Robin Churchouse as an independent non-executive director. Robin joined the board on December 8, 2020 as a member of the audit and risk, remuneration and nomination committees, as well as becoming a director of Lookers Motor Group Limited.
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NMITE
Liverpool-based digital firm Collabco has agreed a new working partnership with the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE) in Hereford.
The institute has chosen Collabco’s myday to deliver its mobile digital campus environment and plans to implement the myday platform for its staff first before going on to support students throughout their learning journey.
“This is an exciting development for Collabco as another higher education institution joins our growing customer base,” said sales director Daniel Taylor, adding: “myday will enable all aspects of the student journey to be delivered completely digitally to NMITE students and staff and we’re delighted that myday has been chosen again as the platform of choice for a UK higher education Institute.”
NMITE head of IT, Paul Guest, said: “I’m looking forward to working with Collabco to develop a revolutionary version of myday for NMITE to help support the learning of the next generation of engineers.”
