Although Wagner missed the chance to back Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar, who briefly worked in the group’s Californian arm, he has taken steps to make sure he doesn’t make the same mistake again. He has set up his own venture-capital boutique and raised $100m from wealthy contacts to back both his own projects and those who bring ideas to him.

Wagner is working with Shaa Wasmund, who once managed the boxer Chris Eubank before founding Mykindaplace, a website for teenage girls that is part of BSkyB.

Bright Station Ventures, as the new firm is called, hopes to offer an alternative to traditional venture capital. Wagner said: “There are businesses that could have been massively successful but they were denied the resources to fast-track a fabulous idea. There’s got to be a different way of doing this.”

Wagner and Wasmund are partly motivated by their own experience trying to raise money for Smarta, an online property venture they have now shelved. Wagner said they were “humiliated” by their treatment in Britain; in one case, a prospective investor tried to cut him out of the project and just back Wasmund.

Bright Station has made its first $4.5m investment to take a 50% stake in Shiny Media, which claims it is Europe’s largest publisher of blogs.

George Coelho, a partner with Benchmark, which made its name backing Ebay, said: “Dan is a great entrepreneur. This country needs more of them.”

Wagner still runs Venda, an online retailing firm that recently raised $20m.

Explore Entrepreneur

• SME

• Start-ups