Potential backers respond to Journal story

Jan 6 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

AN ONLINE business is preparing to go live this month thanks to two new potential backers – one of whom contacted the company after reading a Journal story about its struggle to secure start-up finance.

Urban Digger, which will provide European city information with a social networking facility, was a month away from launching in October when their bank pulled the plug on money that founders Sarah Taylor and Chris Gifford had been counting on to open for business. But when their story was featured in The Journal at the end of October, a potential investor read about their problems and contacted them via the newspaper.

Ms Taylor said: “We have pretty much agreed terms, we have a verbal agreement and we are rushing around to get everything sorted.”

And a second serious investor has also approached the company following a meeting with Ms Taylor and Mr Gifford through the Entrepreneurs’ Forum. Ms Taylor was unable to disclose the names of the business’s two potential saviours or how much they were considering putting into the Newcastle company but she believes their input may loosen the bank’s purse strings.

Ms Taylor is confident Urban Digger will be able to go live soon after struggling to the pre-start-up stage through self-funding, helped with money from Business Link and the Arts Council. “2009 should be quite good. We are leaving for a visit to Spain on January 16 so it has to be up and running by then and our developers are beavering away,” she said.

“I’m really excited, we have been in development for so long.

“It’ll just be fantastic to get it off the ground.”

Ms Taylor studied architecture but was inspired to start Urban Digger when a friend was visiting Barcelona and telephoned to ask about her knowledge of the city.