Ariadne Capital's Meyer in $8.5m investment fund-raising

Julie Meyer, the entrepreneur-turned-investor who founded the First Tuesday networking event, has raised $8.5m (£5.3m) through her Ariadne Capital vehicle.

The seed capital fund, known as the ACE fund, has raised the money from a number of successful entrepeneurs including Ms Meyer and Clive Jacobs, founder of the car rental broker Holiday Autos, which famously featured in a fly-on-the-wall television series.

The fund will invest the first $500,000 in a number of so-called digital enablers, in the media, technology, financial, health and clean technology sectors.

Ms Meyer, who set up Ariadne Capital in 2000 after selling First Tuesday, said the fund could yet raise additional cash and that she was close to signing two deals with "enterprise media" start-ups.

A good example of the type of company Ariadne might look to invest in would be Monitise, a maker of software which enables banks to offer their services to customers over mobile phones.

Ms Meyer said: "Entrepreneurs are naturally inclined to help other entrepreneurs because they have been in the hot kitchen of running a start-up."