Tweetdeck founder a millionaire after Twitter pays £25m for London start-up
LONDON-BASED TweetDeck founder Iain Dodsworth became an overnight millionaire yesterday after selling the firm to Twitter for around $40m (£25m) in cash and shares.
It is not yet clear if Dodsworth, who founded TweetDeck in 2008, will retain a stake in the company or become part of the management team. The former BSkyB and Pru programmer, who describes himself on his Twitter page as an “F1 obsessive”, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman, whose PROfounder Capital vehicle invested £1.2m in TweetDeck, yesterday confirmed to City A.M. he has sold his stake as part of the deal.
He declined to say how much his interest was worth but said he made a “healthy return”.
He also said it was a “very good” deal for Dodsworth, adding: “TweetDeck is a brilliant product that has been recognised by one of the top internet firms in the world.”
Hoberman said he doubts Twitter, which recently signed an ad sharing agreement with TweetDeck will close the site to remove the distraction from its homepage, as has been speculated. “It’s a lot to spend to just close something,” he said.
TweetDeck is also backed by Betaworks, TAG, and angel investors from the US and Europe.
TweetDeck organises Twitter and other social media feeds into easy to navigate columns.