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Portal Brings Taxi Adverts and Voucher Codes to Newcastle

24th Feb 2014 | Education

We have recently advised on a project which will see an innovative in-taxi advertising scheme come to Newcastle, through the installation of 8-inch, 3G multimedia screens.

‘The City Portal,’ created by Newcastle-based entrepreneur and ex-Northumbria University student Richard Baker was funded by North East venture capital firm Rivers Capital Partners, which manages the North East Angel Fund, part of the Finance for Business North East suite of funds. Muckle acted for Rivers Capital, providing legal advice throughout.

Access to city info via taxi touch pads

Over 151,200 taxi customers will be exposed to The City Portal each week, having access on their journey to local events, offers and vouchers for local restaurants, venues and shops via headrest touch pads. The scheme will also promote a non-intrusive and inspiring way for local businesses to advertise. It will bring a fully interactive and dynamic website that pulls in all things Newcastle from national and local blogs, news feeds, and Facebook and Twitter home pages.

The City Portal is designed to interact with the local community on more than one level, bridging the gap between clients and customers. National ticket seller Skiddle, Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle City Hall and the O2 Academy also plan to integrate with the novel Portal to allow Newcastle’s residents access to major events, offers, tickets and discounts.

Driving funding forward

Peter Robinson, Partner in Muckle LLP’s Corporate Team, said: “We have worked with Rivers Capital and the Finance for Business North East Angel Fund since its inception and this is the latest in a number of deals we’ve worked on. On this occasion, we prepared all of the legal documentation involved, helping Richard and Rivers Capital to complete the funding transaction, enabling Richard to put his plans in place. This is a really exciting project and we look forward to seeing it come to fruition.”

Michael Dickens, an Investment Manager of Rivers Capital Partners, said: “Muckle’s support and commercial advice is always appreciated and this has been another positive experience of working together.”

“We saw unmistakeable and remarkable potential in the City Portal and its plans to promote the North East’s cultural hotspot. We considered their business plan to be a well thought out strategy for expansion and as such viewed them as sound candidates for investment.”

“Our aim here at Rivers Capital is to find and invest in the business leaders of the future. There is an unparalleled passion for fresh ideas in the North East alongside first-rate funding opportunities, and it seems inevitable from City Portal’s successful inception, that everybody will want to be part of it.”

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