Moo.com, a Shoreditch-based start-up that prints customised business cards and other stationery using photos from the internet, was globally focused from day one: 70 per cent of its revenues are non-UK.
“The scene is booming,” says Richard Moross, its founder. “These are real businesses with real revenues and profits, raising huge amounts of money. E-commerce is a real thing – it wasn’t 10 years ago in the boom and bust.”
Moo, relaunched in 2006 after an initial version flopped, has doubled revenues every year and has been profitable since 2009. Mr Moross expects to expand its staff from 65 to 100 and launch several products this year. “London has all the raw materials to build very strong, global businesses,” he says. “It’s strong in the creative field, in banking, in design – in lots of core disciplines.”
The expanded research and development tax credit will help Moo, and Mr Moross welcomes the reduction in corporation tax and increase in entrepreneurs’ relief. He believes this should be widened to early employees of start-ups as well as founders, and would like to see all taxable gains from selling a business funnelled back into EIS investments.
Read the full interview on ft.com
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