Exactly this time last year, Shaw Academy, an online education platform founded by James Egan, was tentatively emerging from examinership. It was fundamentally a good business, but it had encountered financial difficulties. It had borrowed from a London-based venture debt fund and a crowd-funded equity raise failed to take-off. Facing corporate insolvency, Egan restructured the company, raising €7 million from smart new investors including former Virgin Group chief executive Stephen Murphy and Setanta Sports co-founder Michael O’Rourke. David Brown, the co-founder of Oxford International Education Group, and serial entrepreneur Sean Tai, who sold his online platform for syndicated loans to…

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