The North West Fund 4 Digital & Creative, managed by AXM Venture Capital Limited, has made a £350,000 equity investment into First Active Media Limited, which operates the Female First fashion and lifestyle website, alongside additional equity investment from new management.
Female First attracts the largest number of visitors of any similar female site in the UK with 2 million monthly unique visitors: around 1 in 20 women visit the site at least once each month.
First Active is based in Ashton-in-Makerfield, and has evolved from an online retailer into the publisher of one of the UK’s most professionally constructed and entertaining sites focused on the female market. The investment will be deployed to enhance the site’s content, further develop its affiliate programme, and to recruit additional sales and marketing staff.
David Sharrock, CEO of MEN Media until earlier this year, joins the company as non-executive chairman while Martin Boddy, who is a well-known figure in the digital marketing sector, has been appointed as a non-executive director.
Managing director Stephen Reay commented that “we are proud of having created such a successful, high quality site with our own limited resources. The new equity will allow us to complete our strategy of developing the UK’s leading online women’s lifestyle site.”
David Smith, Investment Director of AXM Venture Capital, commented that “when we first met Stephen Reay, we were amazed with what the company had created from a small office in the North West. The team has a clear plan to build on the site’s huge popularity, using the Fund’s investment to grow the team and fully monetize its traffic.”
The North West Fund for Digital and Creative is part of the £185m North West Fund financed by The European Regional Development Fund and The European Investment Bank.