Rob Lewis (entrepreneur)

Rob Lewis (born 23 May 1969) is an English businessman and serial entrepreneur. Lewis has established several publishing and technology ventures including Business & Technology magazine, Cromwell Media, Silicon Media Group,[1] Omnifone, rara.com[2] and most recently ROXi.[3] Lewis is a 2009 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.[4]

Rob Lewis
Born (1969-05-23) 23 May 1969
London, United Kingdom
OccupationFounder CEO ROXi

Biography

Lewis was educated at Latymer Upper School, London. He gained a MA degree in Economics from Jesus College, Cambridge.

Career

Journalism and publishing

Lewis established his first venture, the Cambridge Weekly Review,[1] as a rival publication to Varsity, whilst reading Economics at Jesus College Cambridge. He sold the publication to Associate Publishing prior to taking his finals.

Lewis returned to publishing after two years in politics, founding and editing Business & Technology[5] magazine, which he sold to Dennis Publishing in 1993; the publication was absorbed as part of Computer Weekly.

Politics

Lewis spent two years after Cambridge as a researcher and economic advisor to Huddersfield Labour MP Barry Sheerman in the run-up to the 1992 general election.

Internet ventures

In 1994, Lewis co-founded internet software company Cromwell Media[6] with Phil Sant and Mark Knight, providing scalable enterprise level technology solutions that power insurance sites including MORE TH>N. While developing Cromwell Media in the years that followed, a chance meeting at a London party with a team of scientists from CERN in 1998 convinced Lewis of the power of IT publishing over the internet. Lewis founded Silicon Media Group with Eve-Marie Sant and Roger Knight the same year, launching IT news site Silicon.com in the UK, and sister sites Silicon.fr in Paris and Munich-based Silicon.de. In November 1999, Lewis reportedly raised over £11m in investment for Silicon.com from a consortium of venture capital firms headed by Amadeus Capital Partners, with reports valuing the company at £800m in May 2000.[7]

By the time he was 30, The Guardian[1] reported Lewis as one of the top six most successful young entrepreneurs in the UK. That same month, May 2000, aided by the ex-CEO of the Hoskyns Group (now Capgemini) Jim Feeney, Lewis sold Cromwell Media to InterX for £850m.[8] Lewis went on to sell Silicon Media Group to NASDAQ-listed CNET Networks (part of CBS) in 2002.[9]

Renewable energy

Lewis is an investor in Wind Energy, a renewable energy company dedicated to the sensitive development of on-shore wind farms, assessing potential sites across Scotland since 2002. Lewis brokered a majority stake sale to US-based power and utilities company AES Corporation in 2007, pairing Wind Energy with AES owned SeaWest Wind Power[10] bringing a host of development skills to Wind Energy and accelerating the development of clean renewable energy for the UK. Wind Energy currently has nine wind farms in development, including North Rhins in Southern Scotland where permission was granted for 11 Vestas V80 turbines with a capacity of 22 megawatts of electricity.[11] The wind farm will meet the annual electricity needs of around 15,000 homes, over a fifth of the households in Dumfries & Galloway.[12]

Omnifone

Lewis founded Omnifone in January 2003 to enable the next generation of digital content services to be delivered globally. The company develops cloud based interoperable unlimited music services for consumer electronics vendors, mobile carriers and internet service providers across multiple in-home, in-car, mobile and PC device platforms or not.

Lewis secured the first international licensing for unlimited music services with all four major music labels in June 2007[13] rolling out the company’s multi-award winning MusicStation powered unlimited music services to millions of device users across four continents[14] with the likes of Sony,[15] HP,[16] BSkyB,[17] Sony Ericsson,[18] Vodafone,[19] Telenor,[20] Hutchison Telecom[21] and Vodacom.[22]

rara.com

Lewis also served as Chairman of streaming music service rara.com, launched across the USA and Europe on 13 December 2011 on web and Android smartphones. The direct to consumer service was powered by Omnifone's MusicStation platform and was also licensed by the music service provider.[2]

ROXi

Lewis founded ROXi in 2014[23] after he tried to buy his parents a music streaming system for Christmas. "...I would have to provide technical support - that was the light-bulb moment." The thought of constant queries about how to use a complex system was not attractive, so he set about creating something much simpler. "I set the team a challenge. Can we make something that comes in a box, affordable for most people, open the box, and two minutes later you've got a jukebox with all the world's music."[24] ROXi announced the Electric Jukebox digital media player[23] on 14 October 2015.[25] Electric Jukebox was discontinued and succeeded by ROXi, a television based music entertainment experience with music streaming, radio, karaoke, music games, sound machine and visuals in August 2017. ROXi is available on pay TV and Smart TV platforms and via the ROXi Music System digital media player. Lewis brokered a partnership with Sky to bring ROXi to millions of homes on Sky Q in September 2020.[26]

Lewis has raised over £11.6m ($15m) for ROXi to date with early backing from former Take That member Robbie Williams, Grammy award winning artist Sheryl Crow, Britain’s Got Talent judge, singer and presenter Alesha Dixon, and actor, writer and comedian Stephen Fry.[27] Lewis also received investment for ROXi from former Formula One and McLaren Group executive Ron Dennis who took a 10% stake in the company alongside investors such as Henrik Holmark the former CFO of jewellery chain Pandora Henrik Holmark, and Saracens rugby club owner Nigel Wray, the former manager of Irish rock band U2 Paul McGuinness and TomTom co-founder Mark Gretton who invested in the company. [28] [29] [30]

Political campaigning

Lewis was the original author of the Entrepreneurs' letter,[31] an open letter published on the front page[32] of The Times newspaper in the final week of the 2010 general election campaign and signed by leading UK entrepreneurs.

The letter, also featured in The Daily Telegraph,[33] warned of the dangers of a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition government, and its potential effects on entrepreneurial business activity in the UK.

The letter was eventually signed by over 110 UK entrepreneurs, including Simon Calver, CEO of LoveFilm, Ben Goldsmith partner at WHEB Ventures Limited and Julie Meyer CEO of Ariadne Capital and online dragon for BBC Dragons' Den, and was covered extensively in the media, leading on the front page of The Sunday Times,[34][35] and in The Sunday Express,[36] The Sunday Mirror,[37] The Guardian,[38] the UK Press Association,[39] Sky News[40] and ITN[41] four days before the election.

The letter stated that "under Labour the UK is becoming hostile territory for entrepreneurial businesses" and urged the public to vote for the Conservative Party.

Lewis also authored an open letter which was sent to every Conservative and Liberal Democrat MP on 21 June 2010 warning of the economic dangers of significantly increasing Capital Gains Tax in the UK, stating that "any blanket increase in CGT could have a significant long-term detrimental effect on entrepreneurial activity in the UK."[42]

Entrepreneurs letter to Conservative MPs warning that British business is losing faith in the Conservative Party and its ability to manage BREXIT, and demanding a Confirmatory Referendum.

The letter was signed by over 110 leading UK entrepreneurs and was covered across a broad range of national UK media in the run up to the June 2010 United Kingdom Budget including the front page of The Guardian,[43] The Financial Times,[44] The Daily Telegraph,[42] The Daily Express,[45] BBC News,[46] and The Scotsman.[47] Following the publication of the letter the Chancellor announced that the standard rate of CGT would increase much less than expected, to 28% with the additional benefit of a substantially increased £5m entrepreneur relief.

On 3 April 2019 Lewis authored a letter to Conservative MPs warning that British business was losing faith in the Conservative Party and its ability to manage BREXIT, and demanding a Confirmatory Referendum or People's Vote. Lewis’ letter was co-signed by 19 other leading British entrepreneurs including Lastminute.com founder and House of Lords Crossbench Peer Martha Lane Fox CBE, Sir John Hegarty, founder of global ad firm BBH, and Sir Michael Rake, former president of the CBI. The letter was featured in a number of UK national news outlets including the Evening Standard, Sky News,[48] The i and City A.M..[49] In the letter Rob Lewis and the other signatories told MPs: "Today’s Conservative party is no longer a friend of business. It has morphed into a party of economic destruction, corporate uncertainty and poor leadership… This government’s desire to deliver Brexit at any cost is destroying faith in the Conservative party… In the absence of an effective government, there is now only one legitimate path still available to the government, and that is to request updated electoral guidance, by way of a confirmatory referendum."[50]

Members clubs

Lewis was also a director and investor in Century Club, one of the many private members clubs in London, and Paramount, the highest restaurant in Soho, perched at the summit of the Centre Point building.[51]

Awards & honours

• Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year London & South Award 2009[52]

• PwC UK Technology, Innovation & Growth Awards Entrepreneur of the Year 2008[53]

• Mobile Entertainment magazine Top 50 2008[54]

• Mobile magazine Power 50 2008[55]

• Billboard Top 10 Mobile Music Executive 2007: Special feature: 2007 Top mobile executives, 27 October 2007[56]

References
  1. Edited by Tom O'Sullivan (12 March 2000). "Top Ten Most Successful Young Entrepreneurs". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 12 January 2012.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  2. "BBC News: 13 December 2011: Music service rara.com aims for digital non-adopters". BBC. 13 December 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  3. Walton, Mark. "UK’s Electric Jukebox takes on Spotify, Apple Music with all-in-one music appliance", Ars Technica, London, 14 October 2015. Retrieved on 27 May 2016.
  4. "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year London & South Award 2009". Ey.com. 16 June 2009. Archived from the original on 23 February 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  5. "Business & Technology Magazine". Journalism.co.uk. 11 June 2008. Archived from the original on 19 November 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  6. "Cromwell Media". It-analysis.com. 11 February 2000. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  7. Edited by Tom O'Sullivan (12 March 2000). "Silicon.com valued at £800m". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 12 January 2012.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  8. Cromwell Media sold to InterX for £850m in 2000
  9. Sarah Left (2 August 2002). "Silicon Media Group sold to NASDAQ-listed CNET Networks". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  10. "AES buys SeaWest Wind Power" (PDF). Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  11. North Rhins 1
  12. North Rhins 2
  13. Richard Wray, communications editor (12 February 2007). "first international licensing for unlimited music services with all four major music labels". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  14. Available to over 50 million mobile users worldwide
  15. Watkins, Mary (4 January 2011). "Financial Times: 4 January 2011: Sony in cloud-based streaming push". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  16. Richard Wray (25 January 2010). "25 January 2010: HP deal strengthens Omnifone's position in digital music battle". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  17. Business Week: 24 January 2010: Hewlett-Packard Computers in Europe Gain Omnifone Music Service Archived 28 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  18. Screen Digest: 24 September 2008: Sony Ericsson steals Nokia's thunder with music service Archived 8 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  19. Parker, Andrew (11 September 2007). "Financial Times: 11 September 2007: Vodafone reveals its answer to iPhone". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  20. Palmer, Maija (13 June 2007). "Financial Times: 13 June 2007: Mobile phone groups take on iPhone". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  21. Record of the Day: 2 April 2009: Omnifone brings unlimited music downloads to PC and Mobile with MusicStation Desktop Edition Archived 3 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  22. Lesley Stones (31 October 2007). "31 October 2007: Vodacom to boost data revenue with music download service". Business Day. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  23. Cooper, Daniel. "Electric Jukebox: the music player for everyone else", Engadget, London, 14 October 2015. Retrieved on 27 May 2016.
  24. Cellan-Jones, Rory. "Electric Jukebox - will anyone pay for music?", BBC News, London, 14 October 2015. Retrieved on 27 May 2016.
  25. Hamm, Michael. "Music on your TV – Britain gets its rival to Spotify and Tidal", The Guardian, London, 14 October 2015. Retrieved on 27 May 2016.
  26. Cook, James (7 September 2020). "British music streaming start-up Roxi signs deal with Sky". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  27. "Robbie Williams-backed firm launches music streaming service on Sky". Evening Standard. 8 September 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  28. Field, Matthew (21 November 2019). "Ex-McLaren boss Ron Dennis takes 10pc stake in music streaming start-up backed by Robbie Williams". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  29. "F1 legend Ron Dennis acquires stake in streaming service Roxi". www.musicweek.com. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  30. "Electric Jukebox debuts Roxi, raises $14m and plans 2018 IPO". Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  31. "The Times: 29 April 2010: Lib-Lab coalition would be 'disastrous for British business'". The Times. UK. 22 December 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  32. "The Times: 29 April 2010: In a letter to The Times today, 55 entrepreneurs voice their "significant concern" about the possibility of a Lib-Lab coalition". The Times. UK. 22 December 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  33. Leach, Ben (29 April 2010). "The Daily Telegraph: 29 April 2010: General Election 2010: Lib-Lab coalition 'would be bad for business', say leaders". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  34. "2 May 2010: Voters love Nick Clegg but hate his policies". The Times. UK. 22 December 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  35. "The Sunday Times: 2 May 2010: 110 entrepreneurs have signed a letter warning against the consequences of a Labour-Lib Dem coalition". The Times. UK. 22 December 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  36. "The Sunday Express: 2 May 2010: GENERAL ELECTION 2010: BUSINESS WARNS ON COALITION". Dailyexpress.co.uk. 2 May 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  37. "The Sunday Mirror: 2 May 2010: Entrepreneurs voice coalition fears". Daily Mirror. UK. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  38. "2 May 2010: 110 Entrepreneurs voice coalition fears". The Guardian. UK. 2 May 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  39. UK Press Association: 2 May 2010: Entrepreneurs voice coalition fears
  40. "Sky News: 1 May 2010: Entrepreneur Attacks Lib Dems' Ladybird Economics". Blogs.news.sky.com. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  41. ITN: 2 May 2010: Entrepreneurs warn against Lib/Lab coalition
  42. Capital Gains Tax (19 June 2010). "The Daily Telegraph: 19 June 2010: Budget 2010: 110 business leaders write to George Osborne over CGT". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  43. Polly Curtis, Randeep Ramesh and Simon Bowers (20 June 2010). "21 June 2010: George Osborne facing budget backlash". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  44. Kleinman, Mark (19 June 2010). "The Financial Times: 19 June 2010: Business Opposition". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  45. "The Daily Express: 19 June 2010: Raising Capital Gains Tax 'could cut the country's income by £2.5bn a year'". Express.co.uk. 19 June 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  46. "19 June 2010: Government warned over CGT rise". BBC News. 19 June 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  47. Published on Saturday 19 June 2010 11:17 (19 June 2010). "The Scotsman: 19 June 2010: Blanket gains tax increase 'threatens UK's recovery'". The Scotsman. UK. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  48. Kleinman, Mark. "May seeks to reassure bosses over shifting Brexit plan", ‘’Sky News’’, London, 3 April 2019. Retrieved on 5 April 2019.
  49. Rogers, Alexandra."Tory business backers say Conservatives have morphed into party of 'economic destruction'", ‘’City A.M.’, London, 3 April 2019. Retrieved on 5 April 2019.
  50. Rogers, Alexandra. "Tory business backers say Conservatives have morphed into party of 'economic destruction'", ‘’City A.M.’, London, 3 April 2019. Retrieved on 5 April 2019.
  51. The Daily Telegraph: 25 October 2003: Rob Lewis co-founder of Soho private members hangout the Century Club Archived 14 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  52. "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year London & South Award 2009 press release". Ey.com. 16 June 2009. Archived from the original on 23 February 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  53. PwC UK Technology, Innovation & Growth Awards Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 Archived 23 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  54. O'Brien, Stuart. "Mobile Entertainment magazine Top 50 2008". Mobile-ent.biz. Archived from the original on 16 May 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  55. Mobile magazine Power 50 2008
  56. Billboard magazine Top 10 Mobile Music Executive 2007: Special feature: 2007 Top mobile executives, 27 October 2007
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