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Investors may breathe life back into Clickmango

Wendy McAuliffe ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 03 Aug 2000 16:40 BST

At least half a dozen investors are running to resuscitate online healthcare retailer Clickmango.com which announced its intention to wind down operations on Monday.

It will take £300,000 to save the UK startup following a failed second round of funding.

Cofounders Robert Norton and Toby Rowland have been involved in talks with interested parties since Clickmango's launch in April. "These kinds of discussions take a long time to conclude -- but since our announcement on Monday some new companies have come forward, along with some very large investors we tried to contact previously for our second round of funding," says Toby Rowland, chief operating officer.

Clickmango will carry on for as long as possible, but will be forced to shut up shop in September if the money is not found swiftly. "We still hope internally that we will get an offer soon, but it will have to happen quickly," says Rowland.

The founders blame Clickmango's demise on the current negative financial climate and a lack of commitment to e-commerce success outside the US. "I'm disappointed to see that Europe has very little self-confidence in the UK startup area -- we follow the US far too closely on this, despite very different market conditions".

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