Ariadne Capital was founded in December 2000 by Julie Meyer whose vision was to build a leading investment firm out of Europe for game-changers in the digital media, communications, software and services and life services sectors.
Julie has sought investment from leading entrepreneurs in Europe who share her vision of an investment firm for the 21st century. These investors have created significant wealth for themselves and Europe and help Ariadne Capital build the companies in its portfolio.
Here are some of the highlights of the first seven years:
May 2008 - Key Revolution secures funding; Ariadne advises on the deal
March 2008 - SpinVox secures funding
February 2008 - Generator X secures funding; Ariadne advises on the deal
January 17, 2008 - Ariadne Goes Platinum at the 2nd Ariadne Investor Forum
2007 - Christopher Samuelson, Andrew Black [founder of BetFair] and Brent Hoberman [founder of lastminute.com and Chairman founder of MyDeco] become shareholders in Ariadne Capital
November 1 2007 - Ariadne hosts Tom Stewart, the Editor of the Harvard Business Review, for a dinner and talk on leadership
Autumn 2007 - Momail, free mobile email company out of Stockholm, and TheBizmo, personal online music store, out of Oslo, hire Ariadne to bring them into the UK Market
August 2007 - Be Cheeky secures funding from Private Investors
August 2007 - Portfolio company Intamac hire Ariadne Capital introduced CTO
June 2007 - Ariadne hosts Investor Forum 2007 at Institute of Directors
June 2007 - Monitise demerges from Morse PLC and lists on the London Stock Exchange
May 2007 - Travel Intelligence secures funding from Saints VC
February 2007 - The Royal Bank of Scotland announces that they will offer MONILINK services to their customers
February 2007 - Ariadne Capital celebrates its 6th Year Anniversary
December 2006 - Ariadne Capital portfolio companies raised over £25,000,000 in funding since January 2006
November 2006 - Ariadne Capital portfolio company Betbrokers lists on the Alternative Investments Market (AIM) - www.betbrokers.com
October 2006 - Monitise launches the MONILINK service with partners HSBC and First Direct - www.monitise.com
July 2006 - Ariadne Capital portfolio company Intamac is named as a "Fierce 15" Mobile Broadband Company - www.intamac.com
May 2006 - Spinvox - spinning voice into text - joins Ariadne Capital portfolio www.spinvox.com
Spring 2006 - Zopa, the marketplace for lending and borrowing, closes $20m in funding with the assistance of Ariadne Capital - www.zopa.com
December 8, 2005 - Ariadne Capital celebrates its 5th Year Anniversary
November 2005 - Ariadne Capital hosts a private dinner for Dr. Irwin Jacobs and twenty leading entrepreneurs and investors in London.
September 2005 - SKYPE is sold to Ebay.
August 2005 - Ariadne completes €13.5 m transaction to acquire Gandi.net.
Summer 2005 - Richard Duvall, the founder and CEO of ZOPA, mandates Ariadne Capital to advise him on their US expansion and other strategic projects.
Summer 2005 - Ariadne raises angel funding for OTODIO, the "Eyes-Free" Document Delivery service.
January 18, 2005 - Ariadne Capital celebrates 4th Year Anniversary with an evening cocktail and panel including the founders of Skype and Monitise.
December 2004 - Translution, an email translation software firm, engages Ariadne Capital to raise capital which happens within 60 days.
December 2004 - Morse signs Ariadne Capital as Advisor for Monitise - www.monitise.com - the mobile banking services firm and other strategic initiatives.
December 2004 - British Telecoms Wholesale selects Ariadne Capital to advise them on new revenue streams and businesses.
October 2004 - Ariadne Capital secures capital for the lifestyle management company, London-based Ten UK.
April 2004 - Sage, www.sage.com, selects Ariadne Capital to be their advisor in India on acquisitions and investments.
April 2004 - Ariadne Capital Investors invest in Intamac, a UK "Digital Home" firm.
March 2004 - Lloyds TSB chooses Ariadne Capital to work with their Strategic Ventures Group to build new revenue streams and businesses.
January 2004 - Niklas Zennstrom selects Ariadne Capital to be their Strategic Advisor while they build SKYPE. SKYPE becomes a global telecom phenomenon in 2004. Ariadne Capital helps SKYPE do several of its early business development deals in 2004.
1 December 2003 - Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild is Guest of Honour at Ariadne Capital's Third Year Anniversary Evening. She is asked to speak about The Next Big Thing, and mentions SKYPE. Niklas Zennstrom who Ariadne had just begun advising, is at the back of the room.
August 2003 - Navio secures its Series A Funding from Ariadne Capital's network and Add Partners.
August 2003 - Nanomuscle secures $16 m in funding from Vision Capital, Schneider Electric, Ariadne Capital, Net Partner, Vision Capital and First Hand Capital.
July 2003 - Ariadne Capital is asked by the Always-On Conference and Tony Perkins to select six European companies as the Ones to Watch for the first Always On Conference at Stanford.
November 18, 2002 - Ariadne Capital celebrates its 2nd Year Anniversary at Scotts on Mount Street in London, UK with Lausanne, Switzerland IMD Professor and Ariadne Capital Investor Benoit Leleux who has helped many entrepreneurs to get their start - presents.
October 2002 - Ariadne Capital signs agreement with Wolfsburg AG, a public-private partnership between City of Wolfsburg and Volkswagen, to develop its innovations campus and identify strategic acquisitions targets for Volkwagen's corporate venturing unit.
April 18th, 2002 - Ariadne Capital hosts Ariadne Capital Investor Roman Stanek, CEO and Founder, Systinet; John Noakes of Microsoft; and Andrew Tsai, Global Name Registry, at a private event on Digital Identity.
April 2002 - Ariadne Capital is a finalist in the Eurotech Forum's Awards night, chosen as Advisor of the Year alongside Broadview, Regent Associates and West LB Panmure.
March 2002 - The Financial Times newspaper positions Ariadne Capital as leading a new breed of venture capital firms.
November 14th , 2001 - Ariadne Capital Investor Martin Velasco, one of Europe's top entrepreneurs, keynotes at the First Year Anniversary evening, and more than 100 people crowd into the Etruscan Room at Home House to hear him speak about .Rules for Successful Start-ups'.
November 2001 - Ariadne Capital takes an equity stake in the world's first peer-to-peer casino software firm, BeTheDealer.
September 2001 - The Ariadne Capital Journal is launched with a current distribution of more than 12,000.
July 2001 - Deal flow at Ariadne Capital exceeds 50 companies per month seeking capital, talent or sales assistance.
June 2001 - Ariadne Capital selected by The Red Herring to host its first ever Angel Investor Conference in Europe. Twelve portfolio companies are showcased to the 300 investors in attendance.
May 2001 - Ariadne Capital Investor and serial Communications entrepreneur Candace Johnson keynotes at the first Private Investor Evening on May 10th, 2001.
February 2001 - Ariadne Capital makes its first investment in lifestyle management company TenUK, which attracts further investment by Germany RWE and Henkel.
December 2000 - Julie founds Ariadne Capital and the Industry Standard profiles firm for its launch on its cover, December 8th, 2000, calling Ariadne Capital - "The Net's Next Business Model."
July 2000 - First Tuesday is sold to Yazam for $50 million in cash and shares. Julie decides to pursue same vision with new platform to build what she comes to call "Europe.net".
