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Copyright: David Parry / FT
Piers Linney Net Worth
Piers Linney net worth is estimated to be $100 million.
Who is Piers Linney?
Piers Linney, whose full name is Jonathan Piers Linney, is an investor and businessman from the UK. His net worth is approximately $100 million which was accumulated from owning and running businesses such as Genesis Communications and the IT-based business called Outsourcery
Piers Linney is a British entrepreneur and investor. He made his own way into the business world after he left investment banking. He successfully made a name for himself along the way and has participated in the British version of Shark Tank called Dragon’s Den. He has also featured on Secret Millionaire.
Piers Linney Biography
EARLY LIFE
Piers Linney was born in 1971 in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England. His mother’s name is Norma and his father is Derek. He has a Caribbean heritage, Bajan in particular, as well as an English background. He is British though. Piers Linney lived in Stoke on Trent until he was nine years old. He moved to Bacup in Lancashire to a small former mill town. He attended the modern school nearby called Fearns after he failed his examinations.
CAREER
Piers Linney ended up going to the University of Manchester and studying Law and Accounting. Upon finishing his studies, he worked as a solicitor with SJ Berwin. Thereafter he began working in investment banking firstly at Barclays de Zoete Wedd then at Credit Suisse.
He then became an owner of Genesis Communications and Outsourcery.
Piers Linney went on to be a founding member of the Governance Board of the Uk’s Cloud Industry Forum and has discussed publicly and openly the advantages of cloud computing.
He is a founding trustee of the Powerlist Foundation and is also a trustee of both the innovation charity called Nesta as well as Plotr, which is a careers website.
Linney is a donor and patron for several charities such as Virgin Unite.
Awards
Piers Linney has been awarded the JP Morgan Entrepreneur Leader of the Year award at the first Black British Business Awards sponsored by EY. The previous year, he was recognised on the JP Morgan sponsored Power List as one of the top 100 most influential black British persons.
Businesses
Eventually, he left banking and went on to start his own business in 2000. He has not looked back since as he has been involved in several technology, media and telecommunications businesses.
He became a CEO of a corporate finance boutique and he specialised in technology venture capital and securing structured equity and debt finance from US hedge funds for small and mid-cap listed companies. Linney subsequently became one of the partners in a 90 million Euro alternative investment fund providing structured debt and equity financing to small-cap public companies.
Linney and his business partner/ co-CEO, Simon Newton bought out Genesis Communications in 2007. It is a mobile voice and data reseller company. Two years later, the company acquired Thus Mobile from Cable&Wireless and rebranded as Outsourcery in order to primarily focus on cloud IT and communications. The mobile side of the company was sold for £15 million to Daisy Group in 2012.
A total of £13 million was raised from Outsourcery when it was floated on Alternative Investment Mark. Vodafone provided a debt facility to the company and in 2016 it was sold for an unknown amount. The company placed into administration having reached revenues of £10 million but remaining unprofitable.
How Did Piers Linney Get So Rich?
Piers Linney made a large portion of his fortune pioneering and trailblazing innovation in cloud computing. He was the co-CEO along with his business partner, of Outsourcery.
He got into the cloud computing sector of innovation just at the right time and made the most out of it.
Piers Linney secret millionaire
The Secret Millionaire is a television show in the UK within the reality show genre. The main concept of the show is that millionaires go undercover into impoverished communities and agree to give away tens of thousands of pounds. The public is informed that the cameras are filming a documentary so as to not reveal the real identity of the millionaires. The show airs on Channel 4.
Piers Linney made an appearance on episode 3 of season 8 in the year 2011. He went undercover in Wolverhampton and worked at a young offenders institution.
Piers Linney on the dragon’s den
The series Dragons den is a popular one within the UK. It is a reality television show in which entrepreneurs such as Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones, James Caan, Sarah Davis, Kelly Hoppen, Tej Lalvani, Touker Suleyman, Theo Phaphitis and more pitch their business ideas and innovations to a panel of venture capitalist with the ultimate goal of securing investment finance from them.
The show originated in Japan with a different name however, it has been franchised all over the world with several variations of the original Japanese name.
The UK version started airing in January of 2005 on BBC Two. The channel obtained exclusive rights to the show’s format from its Japanese producers.
Linney appeared in the British version of the show in season 11 and season 12 consecutively.
Piers Linney dragons den investments
Skinny Tan
A self-tan product that was pitched and went from a small start-up idea to a global phenomenon. Piers Linney and Kelly Hoppen gave £60, 000 for a 10% take in the company in 2013. The company was sold in June 2015 but Linney and Hoppen remain shareholders.
Wonderbly
Linney invested £100, 000 for a 4% stake in the company and is a personalised children’s book company.
Mainstage Festivals
Once more Piers Linney contributed £100, 000 in return for 15% of the company. The innovative idea was one that targeted the 18-24 market in order to offer them a “once in a lifetime” low-cost clubbing holiday experience.
Number of investments made
During his stint on Dragon’s Den, Linney gave money to a total of eight different companies. Half of those companies went through after the show.
Largest sum invested
The largest amount given was £100, 000.
Most successful investment on the show
Wonderbly which used to be known as Lost My Name, was the biggest success stories from the show for Linney according to the Startups Awards. The British business company has sold more than 2 million children’s fictional books across the world.
Life after the Den
Four companies that were given the funds for their startups went through while the other four did not.
Piers Linney has been investing in other companies especially within the computer innovation world after he finished on Dragon’s Den.
Wonderbly (formerly Lost My Name)
Personalised books
The company offers books that are basically custom made. Your child’s name and likeness (visual appearance similar to the child that you can select for the main character) into pre-written stories and prints a custom book just for the child. The story content is altered so that your child is the centre of the story.
Over time, books have become more open to other groups, not just children. For example, you can get a Father’s Day gift where you can weave your dad’s details and likeness into the story ad hand I to him as a present.
Is Wonderbly a reputable company?
Wonderbly is thought to be a very reputable company as it brings an innovative way of reading books in a personalised way. Most people have not seen other companies do what they do.
Parents have praised it and said “A personalised kid’s book, where your child could be a star of the story! Who wouldn’t want that for their child?”
Another parent said, “These are really fun to read but they are also keepsakes you’ll want to hold onto forever and ever”
Generally, it is highly reputable and on various websites such as britainreviews.co.uk, it was given a total rating of 10 out of 10.