Investing in Somewherenear
Somewherenear has to date been built from first-round finance raised entirely within GBdirect and is 100% owned by GBdirect. The site is attracting considerable interest from within the UK and also from other territories. Having proved the concept and demonstrated not only that it works but that Somewherenear is capable of delivery via various channels such a HTML (the web) and WAP, we are looking at further distribution mechanisms including traditional publishing, i-mode and others. We already have a number of small content-delivery contracts with various portal sites.Although it is and remains our intention to offer the bulk of the service free-of-charge to users and the listed places, there are several clear and exciting opportunities for revenue generation from the site. What's more, our cost base is staggeringly low. If we chose to halt current investment levels, the site would cost about UK 3,000 p.a. to run and yet would continue to grow in content and value and it does not have an expensive editorial team or publicity campaign to support. We already know of lookalikes that have chosen to abandon the space we operate in because they know that our costs will always radically undercut theirs.
To extend the content and geography to cover areas that we wish also to service, we are looking to raise appropriate funding. We wish to identify investors with whom we can partner, who can offer added value beyond just cash, in terms of industry or commercial contacts or infrastructure, and who are prepared to back our vision of how a service like Somewherenear should evolve.