PPLparty Wins Prestigious ‘Investment Challenge’ Award

Social Networking site comes out on top at The Connect Midlands Awards Ceremony 2007

PPLparty.com, the online social networking site for 16 to 24 year old party goers were last night celebrating after winning the Connect Midlands Investment Challenge 2007. Three other winners were named in the West Midlands region - each identified as the best investment prospect out of a field of almost 300 entries.

The award, presented at Kilworth House Hotel, is one of the most recognised honours in the entrepreneurial calendar. This year, sponsored by BT and backed by Catapult Venture Managers and East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA), Connect Midlands joined forces with Doug Richards, the technology and software entrepreneur formally of Dragons Den, to formulate the challenge.

Out of an initial 286 entrants, PPLparty.com's creator and Managing Director Calum Brannan endured preliminary challenges such as 'The Gauntlet', an on line virtual investor and Dragon Den style presentation to get shortlisted down to the last 20 and then the last 6 entries. As a successful finalist, Calum was then required to give a 30 minute business pitch to a panel of venture capitalists to eventually get filtered down to the last 6 to attend the ceremony.

Calum Brannan constructed and designed PPLparty.com when he was just 15 years old and today boasts an online community of over 400,000. PPLparty.com's service offers users an array of features, including colourful profiles, blogs, and unlimited photo uploads.

At still only 18 years old and the youngest winner by a considerable margin, the award is an incredible feat for Calum and PPLparty.com, and means that his creation is now not only recognised by its members and regional and national press but now credibly stands among other established entrepreneurs and businesses.

Calum Brannan commented: "The award marks a major milestone in PPLparty.com's history and I'm extremely proud to be able to collect this award. As a key element of the process was to obtain funding, this bodes extremely well for the business in bot h the short and longer term, enabling us to continue generating momentum - we've already received three additional offers of investment. As successful as the site is, we're not finished yet - the team has a great many new ideas and plans to implement that will to keep PPLparty.com the site of choice for all its member-base of young clubbers and party goers around the UK."

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Additional Information:

The PPLparty was developed with zero budget in Brannan's bedroom whilst he studied for his GCSEs. When he was ready to launch commercially, he saved up his wages from his part-time job at Pizza Hut and spent £200 on flyers to distribute round his native Coventry. On the back of these flyers and word of mouth alone, PPLparty.com is now one of the biggest online social networks in the UK.

Although just two years old, PPLparty is already a massive UK social networking success story, where over 320,000 party people regularly communicate their life, passions and knowledge. The site is aimed at 18 - 24 year olds but anyone aged over 16 can register.

Founded in 2005 solely by entrepreneur Calum Brannan, PPLparty has a rapidly growing team, which currently has 6 people based across London and the West Midlands. The team is party obsessed, hugely committed and on a mission to create the ultimate social networking story within the online space, both in the UK and internationally.

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