London Business Angels swoop on social networking business

UK networking website CitySocialising has raised £260,000 from an investment syndicate led by the London Business Angels Network as the company looks to roll out into new cities.

The website, www.citysocialising.com, was launched in January 2007 in London and has since expanded into Manchester and Leeds.

The site is based on a user subscription model – although it is free to join. Users can chose to pay if they want to attend or organize social activities with others on the website. The business has already achieved annualised revenues of £300,000.

The money raised will also be used to complete the development of a new web platform. The new, improved site will launch in May 2009 and plans are afoot to take it into Newcastle, Sheffield, Liverpool and Cardiff.

Chris Padfield, investment manager for London Business Angels, said: “CitySocialising represented a unique opportunity to our investors; a profitable social networking site with a dynamic entrepreneur who has bootstrapped the company to its current position. With high growth in both members and subscribers and one of the highest retention rates we have ever seen – CitySocialising is providing a service which its members are clearly comfortable paying for despite the economic downturn.”