Ex-Cameron Aide Finds £15m For Second Home

A former adviser to David Cameron who this week launched a fierce attack on Britain’s honours system is close to clinching millions of pounds in fresh funding for his technology incubation business.

Sky News understands that Rohan Silva, who left Downing Street in 2013, and his business partner Sam Aldenton are in the process of raising approximately £15m to finance the expansion of Second Home.

The new fundraising - Second Home's largest to date - is expected to be finalised during the summer.

The company, which opened a 25,000 square foot workspace aimed at entrepreneurs in Shoreditch, east London, two years ago, and has become hugely popular among technology start-ups.

Second Home describes itself as "a creative accelerator", harnessing the close proximity in which entrepreneurs are able to share ideas and make introductions to prospective business partners and investors.

Since opening in 2014, Second Home has drawn up plans to create new sites in Lisbon and Los Angeles.

The company boasts an illustrious array of shareholders, including the chairman of ITV (Frankfurt: A0BLQP - news) , Sir Peter Bazalgette, top executives from the advertising agency M&C Saatchi (LSE: SAA.L - news) , and Yuri Millner, the technology tycoon whose vehicle DST Global has backed some of the world's largest internet companies.

Mr Silva is an outspoken figure who waded into the debate about Mr Cameron's resignation honours list earlier this week, saying: "I really think the honour system matters and I think the fight that is happening right now over this honours list shows how much it matters to people who gets an honour and who doesn't."

"I think the real scandal of our honours system over the past years, decades, is the fact that so few entrepreneurs, so few people who take real risks and build companies get honours.

"If you look at the last ten years a tiny sliver, less than 1 per cent of honours, go to people who started businesses. I just don't think that is right."

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Silva confirmed Second Home's fundraising plans and said: "I do understand that getting investment is not a success in and of itself - we are working to build a sustainable company that will still be around in a hundred years."

He declined to comment on the identity of Second Home's new investors or the company's valuation once the fundraising is completed.