News

A London based technology company has secured a £250,000 investment from the Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF), backed by the Recovery Loan Scheme. 

The GLIF loan, along with additional private equity investment, will be used for further product development and to create 100 new jobs over the next two years, more than doubling the current workforce. 

Looper Insights began developing its product in response to an industry problem that the major Hollywood Studios and VoD Streaming companies were experiencing. They simply couldn’t see where their content was placed on Connected TV Devices like Smart TV’s, set top boxes, streaming devices, games consoles and web stores. Looper has created a black box which scans all of these UIs for App and Title placement, which is used to provide data analysis and insights to film and television studios, distributors, and Video on Demand stores to optimise their revenues. 

Previously, media companies did not have up-to-date information on pricing levels and promotions, and many managed their back catalogues on spreadsheets. Looper’s software allows the content creators to manage their content across platforms such as iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, XBox and Samsung TVs, enabling clients to use the data to advise them on what they need to change in the distribution of each film/TV show, and whether there is potential to increase its revenues through visibility and campaign opportunities. 

Lucas Bertrand, Co-founder, CEO and Board Director, said: “Looper provides a service to content providers that no other company is currently offering, bringing a huge opportunity in a growing sector. We are extremely grateful for this GLIF loan, which has come at an opportune moment to capitalise on the rapid increase in the Video on Demand market through the expansion of our staff base as well as funding our product development work, which focuses on building access to more and more devices.”  

The complex technology has taken over two years to develop and build, assuring Looper an early market adoption advantage, which they are planning to protect through patent applications this year. With the global Video on Demand market worth around $55bn and projected to rise to $160bn by 2027, the importance of Connected TV Devices in delivering the end user experience is increasing, making the service Looper offers even more relevant to content providers. 

Paul Shadbolt, Investment Manager for The FSE Group, which manages the £55 million debt fund on behalf of Funding London, commented: “Looper has developed a ground-breaking product that is solving the problems of some of the biggest television and film distribution companies across the world, including Amazon, Sony and Disney. This, together with a team of advisors and board directors with vast experience in this sector and the ability to support and advise Lucas in the development of the brand, positions the company well for future growth and we are excited to be working with them to realise this.” 

Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, CEO at Funding London, adds: “We were very impressed with the pioneering technology Lucas and the team have created. The market opportunity is substantial and by having a first-mover advantage, we believe Looper is best positioned to achieve its ambitions. We are thrilled to be supporting the business’ and team’s expansion through the GLIF loan.”

GLIF is a £100m initiative to help address the SME finance gap in Greater London, promoting economic growth through enterprise and an inclusive and sustainable economy. £55m of debt funding is available, via loans between £100,000 and £1m, to early-stage and established SMEs looking to scale-up and realise their growth ambitions. GLIF is financed through the European Investment Bank (EIB), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), London Waste & Recycling Board (LWARB) and Funding London’s Legacies.

The Recovery Loan Scheme is managed by the British Business Bank on behalf of, and with the financial backing of, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. British Business Bank plc is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. It is not authorised or regulated by the PRA or the FCA. Visit http://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/recovery-loan-scheme.

A company which builds products to increase the success of app marketing has secured £170,000 from Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF), backed by the government’s Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS).

The funding will be used to scale up their staff team by creating six new positions in their London head office and will enable the company to focus on their marketing activity throughout 2022.

Machine Advertising started life as a tech solution to help brands optimise their return on advertising spend. The technology was built inhouse and additional tools were added, including a fraud detection tool. The fraud detection aspect of the software has been hugely successful. When they ran one of their larger global client’s campaigns through their fraud tool, 92% of app installs were found to be fraudulent. At this point they pivoted their business towards further developing the fraud tool.

Clients run their campaigns through Machine Advertising’s platform which checks 25 billion data points every month. These checks are designed to detect whether marketing is reaching the intended audience or whether fraudsters are using bots, or domain spoofing, to siphon off money from advertising transactions.

Gary Danks, CEO at Machine Advertising said: “Growing our team is an exciting step for us, as it will enable us to increase our marketing reach and welcome new clients to the Machine Advertising portfolio. Our existing clients are from a breadth of sectors, from travel to advertising. But for all their differences each of them need transparency when it comes to successfully spending their marketing budget. Our products facilitate this by protecting ad campaigns from fraudulent attacks. We’re very much looking forward to building our team so that we can work with the next round of clients, our thanks to Paul at The FSE Group for facilitating the funding that will enable this.”

Paul Shadbolt, Investment Manager for The FSE Group, which manages the £55 million GLIF debt fund on behalf of Funding London, added: “Machine Advertising is a perfect example of a company who has successfully amended their focus to take on board their strengths, rather than missing exciting opportunities. This foresight and drive impressed us, along with winning the Business of Apps Top Ad Fraud Prevention Tool in 2020 and being named the Most Effective Anti Fraud Solution at the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards. We wish Gary and his team all the very best for the future.”

Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, CEO at Funding London, added, “Gary and his team have built an innovative product which delivers great value to its users. Pivoting the business has helped them go from strength to strength. We are delighted that GLIF’s capital will underpin Machine Advertising’s team expansion and support their growth ambitions.”

GLIF is a £100m initiative to help address the SME finance gap in Greater London, promoting economic growth through enterprise and an inclusive and sustainable economy. £55m of debt funding is available, via loans between £100,000 and £1m, to early-stage and established SMEs looking to scale-up and realise their growth ambitions. GLIF is financed through the European Investment Bank (EIB), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), London Waste & recycling Board (LWARB) and Funding London’s Legacies.

A Birmingham-based developer of digitisation solutions for businesses has secured a growth finance loan from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), provided by The FSE Group Debt Finance Fund, and backed by the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS).

The investment, which accompanies an additional equity raise, will fund staffing and overheads whilst facilitating the creation of six new sales roles.

Opinsta’s Operations Management Platform is an all-in-one mobile-first solution designed to eliminate manual processes, discover actionable data and enhance the ROI of existing systems within large enterprise organisations.

The platform can be quickly deployed in organisations and customised to meet the exact needs of clients. It can integrate with existing software enabling a seamless data flow between complex legacy systems (including SAP, Maximo and ServiceNow) and front-line operations.

It has been pivotal in helping organisations optimise operational efficiency, saving costs and time, enhance the ROI of existing software platforms and increase customer and employee satisfaction levels.

Rajesh Verma, Opinsta founder and CEO, said: “Since our launch in 2014, Opinsta has delivered B2B software for industry-leading businesses across multiple sectors, helping to deliver millions in operational savings for our clients. Although Covid-19 delayed our planned growth across other sectors and geographies, we are now facing extensive opportunities in these areas. This MEIF funding will allow us to forestall any further Covid impact and focus our efforts fully on escalating the delivery of our market-leading platform.”

With increasing numbers of businesses seeking effective and efficient digital solutions for their work processes, the market opportunity is substantial. Opinsta is looking to expand across multiple industries including manufacturing, logistics, sports stadiums, car manufacturers and infrastructure companies, both in the UK and internationally.

Kerry Haughton, Investment Manager at The FSE Group, which manages the MEIF Debt Finance Fund, added: “Raj has spent considerable time assembling a strong core team to hone the platform and lay the groundwork for expedited growth. Despite Covid related setbacks, the team continued to add a significant number of new clients throughout 2021 and they are now ready to capitalise on this traction. As an agile and client-focused SME with a first-to-market advantage, Opinsta is in a great position to scale quickly and achieve its growth ambitions.”

Ryan Cartwright, Senior Manager, UK Network at the British Business Bank added: “MEIF funding has a range of uses for businesses, such as building team, expanding premises and purchasing new equipment. This latest package, backed by the Recovery Loans Scheme, will support Opinsta with the creation of six new job roles. Other businesses in the Midlands region looking to mitigate the impact of Covid or move into the next stage of development should consider MEIF funding.”

Ian Tandy, Board Director at Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) commented: “Across our region, we have a thriving community of digital technology businesses and innovators like Raj and his team at Opinsta. With digitisation a growing trend due to the pandemic, B2B digital platforms are in demand more than ever. This latest round of investment therefore is not only supporting Opinsta’s growth ambitions but SMEs looking to improve the efficiency of their operations. This is critical to delivering GBSLEP’s mission to drive inclusive growth through enabling and supporting our businesses to unlock their potential.”  

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.

The FSE Group, MEIF Debt Finance Fund provides loans between £100,000 and £1.5million to help growing SMEs across the region.

A Surrey based performance cycling wheel brand is the latest company to receive finance through the Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator. The £100,000 expansion loan will fund further product development, marketing and growth of the team.

From its Puttenham workshop Parcours designs and retails its range of wheels with cutting-edge aerodynamic technology. Since its launch in 2016, the company has built a solid reputation for a premium product at an affordable price point, with a number of top cyclists and triathletes winning races and championships riding on Parcours wheelsets.

As a small business among a myriad of large competitors, ongoing research and development is key to Parcours remaining at the forefront of technical improvements to maintain its reputation and underpin its future growth. A research partnership with Nottingham Trent University Sports Engineering dept has already resulted in the launch of a unique rim technology following Parcours’ #thinkwider project and design philosophy. This involved fitting bikes with ultrasonic sensors that were used to run tests in real-world wind conditions over a 12-month period. Data was collected via smartphones and used to inform and drive product development.

Its innovative approach to research and development has allowed Parcours to deliver a product with performance and technical credentials beyond its price bracket and, having seen sales increase by 70% in the last year, the business now faces an opportunity to expand in a number of international markets.

Parcours founder and CEO Dov Tate commented: “As a small and agile business we have been able to react quickly to the growth in cycling that has taken place during the pandemic. Unlike many of our larger competitors, we haven’t been so significantly impacted by significant supply chain issues and are still delivering to our direct sales consumers as well as our retailers and distributors. We are now looking to expand our presence in Europe, North America and Asia and this Enterprise M3 loan means we can get ahead of the competition in taking advantage of the wider market opportunities.”

Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator is managed by The FSE Group on behalf of Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership. Cheryl Weeks, The FSE Group’s Head of Funds, South East added: “Over the past five years Dov has developed a range of technology driven, high-quality products which, alongside a pricing model that is difficult for larger competitors to match without disrupting their distribution model, has helped him to establish a robust, niche business with strong relationships across the sector. With the pandemic led cycling boom showing no signs of slowing, the market opportunity is considerable and we look forward to working with Dov and his team as they drive the growth of the business.”

Kathy Slack, Director, Enterprise M3 LEP, comments: "It’s encouraging to see a small, local company expanding into global markets and I look forward to seeing their continued success. Innovative research and product development between Parcours Velo and Nottingham Trent University shows how small companies can grow in a competitive market and I’m delighted that our Funding Escalator has been able to support their expansion.”

The Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator is a £10million initiative funded by Enterprise M3 LEP. The escalator includes an expansion loan scheme, a short-term trade loan scheme and an equity growth fund, and provides eligible companies with loans and equity funding between £50,000 and £300,000 for activities that will deliver high-growth and employment opportunities across the EM3 area.

A London based direct-to-consumer online plant retailer has secured a £1million loan from the Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF) to support business expansion.

The loan, which is backed by the Government’s Recovery Loan Scheme, will support the company’s growth ambition through sales and marketing activity, the creation of new jobs in London and allow for an investment in product development.

Established in 2015, Patch initially concentrated on the London market before a nationwide roll out in March 2020, thus benefitting from an increase in the ecommerce plant market during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a direct-to-consumer supplier of indoor and outdoor plants and accessories they were the first to offer a broad range of quality plants delivered direct to the home, as well as a unique system of professional aftercare in the form of YouTube tutorials from plant experts.

Patch will look to broaden their product offer to capitalise on the growing trend towards urbanisation and the demand for wellbeing products. This will be achieved through expanding the product range to include a more material range of outdoor plants as well as through retail partnerships.

Freddie Blackett, CEO and Founder of Patch, commented: “Thanks to this GLIF loan, we will be able to adjust to the increased transport and recruitment costs that the pandemic and other external factors have forced upon us. The loan comes at a crucial moment, allowing us to invest in both a strong workforce as well as increased marketing to really push forward with our growth plans.”

Currently valued at £4billion, the UK plants and accessories market is still growing. As the acceleration in ecommerce brought about by Covid-19 continues, online penetration of the plant market is rapidly increasing, with Patch’s market-leading position driven by its first-mover advantage.

David Booth, Investment Manager for The FSE Group, which manages the £55 million GLIF debt fund on behalf of Funding London, added: “We were impressed by the business momentum which Freddie has built since 2015 and the growth opportunity.  We are delighted to be supporting Patch on the next stage of their journey and look forward to working with the team as they continue to execute their plans for expansion”.

Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, CEO at Funding London, adds: “As a pioneer of the ‘urban jungle’ movement, Patch continues to drive the rise of this trend which has improved the lives of many city dwellers. We are extremely excited to continue supporting them as they launch in their next stage of growth.”

GLIF is a £100m initiative to help address the SME finance gap in Greater London, promoting economic growth through enterprise and an inclusive and sustainable economy. £55m of debt funding is available, via loans between £100,000 and £1.5m, to early-stage and established SMEs looking to scale-up and realise their growth ambitions. GLIF is financed through the European Investment Bank (EIB), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), London Waste & Recycling Board (LWARB) and Funding London’s Legacies.

The Recovery Loan Scheme is managed by the British Business Bank on behalf of, and with the financial backing of, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. British Business Bank plc is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. It is not authorised or regulated by the PRA or the FCA. Visit http://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/recovery-loan-scheme.