Patrick Bradley, former chief executive of Ingenious Ventures, has launched Station 12, a media and entertainment investment manager.
Station 12 will be Europe’s only investment manager to focus entirely on providing growth and expansion capital to the region’s fast-growing and disruptive media, entertainment and media technology companies.
The team will invest in companies ranging from television, film, publishing and live entertainment, through to marketing services, e-commerce, digital content, gaming, fashion and design.
The London-based fund aims to raise GBP150m, commencing its first fundraise this summer. The investment team has already identified a pipeline of potential investments, into which the average initial investment will be circa GBP10m.
Named after an intelligence hub renowned for innovation and technology in the 1940s, Station 12 aims to plug a gap in European media and entertainment financing, which is holding back growth across the continent. Although the sector’s start-up community benefits from a healthy investment environment, a lack of crucial follow-on funding means too many mid-market companies do not get the opportunity to expand. The US has deep resources of capital at this stage, whereas Europe is currently under-served. If Europe is to take full economic advantage of the growing and evolving media and technology market, it is vital this shortfall is addressed.
Station 12 is founded by Patrick Bradley, formerly the chief executive of Ingenious Ventures, the private equity arm of Ingenious focusing on investing in the creative industries, which he helped to establish in 2001.
Bradley says: “This is an exciting time for the European media and entertainment sectors which employ as many as eight million people across the continent. Today, Europe is home to some of the world’s most vibrant creative industries, producing exceptional content and media companies. Unlike the European technology market, which has deep resources of expansion capital, our media and entertainment sectors remain under-served by capital and operational expertise required to support long term success. Station 12 intends to fill this gap and become the pre-eminent investor in the space.”
