# Springboard

> Springboard is a VC fund in Cambridge backing Mobile and Software. See 9 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Total investments: 9
- Last investment: Sep 2012
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026

Springboard is a VC fund in Cambridge focused on Mobile and Software. Springboard has evolved into a full time 13 week bootcamp accelerator programme based in ideaSpace within the Cambridge University. This new format has been funded by a syndicate of angel investors that includes NESTA and will be managed by Jon Bradford, the founder of The Difference Engine.Springboard will adopt a model comparable to YCombinator and TechStars. It will provide £5,000 per founder (to a maximum of three founders) for 6% of the business with intensive mentoring and support throughout the bootcamp from over 50 accomplished mentors including experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The programme ends with the teams presenting their business to venture capitalists and angel investors at an Investor Day.As of February 2013, Springboard has joined forces with TechStars and became

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Springboard. Shizune tracks 1 team members at Springboard. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/springboard?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mobile | 2 | 22% |
| Software | 2 | 22% |
| Analytics | 2 | 22% |
| Education | 2 | 22% |
| CRM | 1 | 11% |

29 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pre-Seed | 5 | 56% |
| Seed | 4 | 44% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United Kingdom | 4 | 44% |
| Bulgaria | 1 | 11% |
| New Zealand | 1 | 11% |
| South Korea | 1 | 11% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Paul Spurgeon | Founder | 0 | — |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| GiftCannon | GiftCannon is an app for mobile gifting, allowing users to instantly send gifts using their smartphones. GiftCannon allows users to send inexpensive gifts such as cupcakes, glasses of champagne, and yoga sessions via a service designed to encourage spontaneous, repeat gifting. |  | Pre-Seed | Sep 18, 2012 |  |
| GetLikeminds | GetLikeMinds produces recruitment referral solutions to help companies manage their employee referral programs. It also provides real-time analytic and metric reporting for companies to offer the data they need to make the recruitment decisions.GetLikeMinds offers solutions for startups, agencies, businesses, elites, and enterprises. It wasfounded in 2012 and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. | $71K | Seed | Sep 18, 2012 |  |
| Playground Energy | Playground energy is developing ideas which are making outdoor games more fun, educational and functional. Our main focus is to utilize the energy created at outdoor playgrounds and to use it for interactive motivation of the kids without sacrificing the gaming experience. |  | Seed | Sep 01, 2012 |  |
| Hassle.com | Hassle is a free to the consumer, destination web site that puts together buyers and sellers of home based services such as cleaners, tutors, personal trainers, and driving instructors. It enables the consumer to search for a vetted provider, read ratings and reviews, and instantly book and pay for a service. They have started with domesticcleaners, providing real time order fulfilment for busy customers across London. | $23K | Seed | Apr 02, 2012 |  |
| Knodium | Knodium lets students study together online using an open collaboration platform.Students and instructors can come together in groups based on courses, projects, or even common interests. Rich content creation is possible with simple, well-designed tooling and allows for real time interaction between members. Users can ask questions and shareknowledge, resources, and information with each other. Over time Knodium becomes a knowledge base for students.Knodium is doing for education what Yammer did for enterprise. It is free for students and instructors. Institutions can pay to claim their networks giving them a greater degree of control and access to analytical insights. | $35K | Seed | Apr 01, 2012 |  |
| Knodium | Knodium lets students study together online using an open collaboration platform.Students and instructors can come together in groups based on courses, projects, or even common interests. Rich content creation is possible with simple, well-designed tooling and allows for real time interaction between members. Users can ask questions and shareknowledge, resources, and information with each other. Over time Knodium becomes a knowledge base for students.Knodium is doing for education what Yammer did for enterprise. It is free for students and instructors. Institutions can pay to claim their networks giving them a greater degree of control and access to analytical insights. | $35K | Pre-Seed | Apr 01, 2012 |  |
| Flitto | Flitto also offers translations for a variety of content such as celebrities and brands' social media feeds, fun web comics and e-commerce deals. When it comes to Flitto's crowdsourcing translation, Flitto operates on a point system that combines gamification and financial incentives to motivate its users to translate. Translators areranked with an internal algorithm that's based on the speed, quality, and quantity of translations made. Points that are accumulated by doing translations can them be redeemed with money through PayPal or donated to charity organizations. In 2017, Flitto launched AI translation for the mobile devices that allows users to get free and accurate translation, thanks to the language data it has acquired over the years. Any type of requests ranging from text, image to voice, can be translated by Flitto's AI system. |  | Pre-Seed | Jan 01, 2012 |  |
| PlayMob | Playmob is a games platform for brands with purpose. We connect the most meaningful brands to billions of mobile gamers, to take action and make the world a better place while positively boosting the brands bottom line. Through leveraging playable-ads with our unique impact methodology, harnessing media space within existing hit mobile titlesand tracking powerful values-based data and business data, Playmob aims to be the first global distribution platform, enabling brands to reach and engage gamers with their purpose. Playmob also benefits the publisher by meaningfully engaging with the player. We see engagement rates of 30% to 50%. |  | Pre-Seed | Dec 11, 2011 |  |
| MiniMonos | MiniMonos.com is a virtual world for children who love to play and love the planet. On the site, kids create monkey avatars, make friends, decorate their treehouses, and play games.MiniMonos is “fun first” and kids join to play, not to learn – but the site has core messages of sustainability, generosity and community embedded throughout.Every purchase on MiniMonos supplies clean water to kids in India (over 14,000 days to date); we’ve adopted orangutans and supported wild tigers, and kids get in-world rewards for real-world eco-actions.The site, which launched out of beta April 1, 2011, has been growing by more than 20% per month for the past nine months and now has more than 300,000 registered members; it is generating revenue through subscriptions and microtransactions from its target market of 8-12-year-old boys. The top four countries for registrations are the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand; memberships are being driven through natural traffic (word of mouth), Google Adwords, the Miniclip games aggregator site, and PR, primarily kids’ television. The company has just launched TV commercials in the UK and will be launching branded prepaid cards in Sainsbury's nationwide in October.MiniMonos has been going for two years and is led by a solid and committed team of startup veterans; the CEO, Melissa Clark-Reynolds, has more than 20 years of experience as a successful entrepreneur. MiniMonos raised initial capital in New Zealand and is also incorporated in the US and the UK. | $15K | Pre-Seed | Sep 06, 2011 |  |

9 of 9 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [HardGamma Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hardgamma-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Ballpark Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ballpark-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Start-Up Chile](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/start-up-chile) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Techstars](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/techstars) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [Everywhere Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/everywhere-ventures) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Springboard invest in?

Springboard invests primarily in Mobile, Software and Analytics startups, most often at Pre-Seed and Seed stage. Most of the 9 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United Kingdom. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Springboard?

For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Springboard?

The team at Springboard includes Paul Spurgeon (Founder). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co