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Beer & Partners put together a syndicate for the private equity deal worth some £300k with Beer

Investor members including Rolls-Royce Corporate Venturing, Marshall Leopold (a partner at law firm,

Steptoe & Johnson LLP) and Ade Bamigboye (a founder and CEO of Wireless Matters). Mezzo Movies

was set up in October 2004 by David Sampson who has 20 years experience in developing new

products, most recently for Hutchinson Whampoa and prior to that at Tesco. The management team

also includes Martin Cunnison, previously at Threshers, tesco.com and Regus; Andrew Wilson, former

director at The Royal Bank of Scotland; and Jim Gilhooly, an ex-European Sales/Marketing Director of

Panasonic Inflight Entertainment Division.

The Mezzo proposition, whilst primarily aimed at the needs of travellers on short-haul flights, also

appeals to airlines, which are hungry for profitable incremental revenue streams. Using the resources

provided initially by the management team and several seed investors, the company’s handheld IFE

proposition was already proven in principle in live competitive trials with airline passengers by the

time they were introduced to the Angel Investor community by Beer and Partners.

Simon Heywood, an investment director at Beer & Partners London, commented:

“I expect Mezzo to achieve significant market advantage through the Rolls-Royce air industry

connections. Behind the scenes they will also be exploiting some of the technical IP and know-how

that has been developed over the years by Rolls-Royce.”

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