The UK Creative Content EIS Fund has made its first investment, backing Wonderhood Studios, founded by former Channel 4 CEO David Abraham.<\/p>\n
The UK Creative Content EIS Fund was launched by Calculus Capital and Stargrove Pictures in June following a BFI report that highlighted a shortfall in independent finance to help successful U.K. screen content companies scale up. The fund, along with other Calculus funds, is investing in Wonderhood, whose TV production arm has won several broadcast commissions in the last year from the BBC and Channel 4. The first is a factual format for BBC Two about food and memory, featuring Heston Blumenthal. Other projects include a documentary about current U.S. politics for BBC Three and a medical science series for Channel 4.<\/p>\n
Wonderhood is introducing a new hybrid model as a TV program-maker and advertising agency supported by a third division, which provides data-led insights into audience behavior.<\/p>\n
Abraham said: \u201cWonderhood is a new generation creative business focused on innovative content that impacts culture. As we look to scale, the investment from the UK Creative Content EIS Fund allows us to deliver our plans faster and to begin to explore genres such as drama sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Glencross, chief executive at Calculus Capital, said: \u201cThe UK Creative Content EIS Fund is designed to help companies with high potential to accelerate their growth, recruit high-quality executive talent and develop new content for production. The fund has an investment strategy covering premium screen content over multiple platforms and target audiences. People are fundamental to the success of any organization and David Abraham\u2019s experience, including growing Channel 4 revenues to \u00a31 billion, further increases our confidence in the continued success of Wonderhood Studios.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stephen Fuss, CEO of Stargrove Pictures, said: \u201cWonderhood has everything we\u2019re looking for in an investment\u2014a company with outstanding creative talent, great management, a slate of commissions and bags of potential. It\u2019s also uniquely placed to apply its expertise across several areas\u2014from advertising and factual entertainment to TV drama and documentaries. That opens up a host of opportunities for generating revenue and profit.”<\/p>\n
Amanda Nevill, CEO of the BFI, said: \u201cCalculus has identified a strong pipeline of investment opportunities for the UK Creative Content EIS Fund in the U.K. film and screen content sector, already worth almost \u00a38 billion to the U.K. and growing to meet international demand for U.K. creativity, innovation and talent. We are very excited about its first investment with Wonderhood through the fund, which is setting out to support innovative content companies working across film and broader screen storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wonderhood Co-Founder Sachin Dosani said: \u201cCalculus is one of the U.K.\u2019s most respected EIS fund managers. Its association with the BFI and Stargrove created a compelling proposition and natural choice for Wonderhood when we were selecting our funding partner for the next stage of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UK Creative Content EIS Fund has made its first investment, backing Wonderhood Studios, founded by former Channel 4 CEO David Abraham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":9785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[2027,1572],"class_list":["post-9784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-uk-creative-content-eis-fund","tag-wonderhood-studios"],"yoast_head":"\n