Graeme Fraser-Bell, chief executive of Cheshire-based Accentuate Games, explains why the business should win the innovation in funding category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition.
Accentuate Games Ltd (AGL) went commercial in July 2014. From £57,000 in 2014, sales are projected to grow to £260,000 in 2015.
AGL has been funded predominantly by £233,000 of director’s loans from sibling co-founders Graeme and Fiona Fraser-Bell. From 2014 to 2015, CEO Dr. Graeme Fraser-Bell sold his Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, Ferrari F430 and Bentley Azure, to convert these pieces of metal into the cardboard stock of the game.
To provide essential second stage funding Fraser-Bell also sacrificed his dream of becoming the first jetpack owner in the UK by jointly sanctioning the IPO of The Martin Jetpack Company Ltd. Upon listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in March he sold his shares, transferring the proceeds to AGL. These funds were used for:
1. Copyright, design and trademark protection of the game in the EU, UK, USA and Canada.
2. Development of a compelling brand image with a world-class transactional website.
3. Radio, magazine and cinema advertising.
4. Investment in an unusually large initial production run of 10,000 units of the game.
After this, to step up to the next level the team sought funding from BBC 2 programme Dragons’ Den, broadcast on 19 July.
Funding of £45,000 was secured from Peter Jones, for 40% equity with a novel ratchet down to 25% upon pay-down of initial funding.
These funding routes have allowed Accentuate to achieve record sales, brand recognition, key account expansion and a big sales increase in 2015.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
