News

An East London based referral and advocate marketing platform has secured a £500,000 loan from the Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF) to expand its operations and create 6 new employment opportunities. 

The funding will enable Buyapowa to strengthen its team, helping them to achieve their growth plan over the next three years. The company will also be expanding its product offering whilst exploring more partnership campaigns.

Headquartered in London, Buyapowa also operates in France, Germany, Spain and Canada and was established in March 2011. The company’s ambition is to become the global platform leader in referral marketing, enabling enterprises to operate numerous “refer-a-friend” programmes. These employee referral solutions and customer loyalty schemes allow vouchers or cash rewards to be earned by a client’s customers and their friends and is one of the most powerful ways to acquire new customers.

Gideon Lask, CEO and Co-Founder of Buyapowa, commented: “We provide a white label platform to clients in 27 different countries spanning 23 languages. Our platform is used by innovative companies including Vodafone, BT, T-Mobile, First Direct & British Gas and enables them to focus on their customer-get-customer and invite-a-friend campaigns. The funding has come at an exciting time for the business as we strengthen the team which gives us the resources to take us to the next level.”

Marco Cerrone, Investment Manager for The FSE Group, which manages the £55 million GLIF debt fund on behalf of Funding London, added: “We were impressed with Buyapowa’s platform and their successful track record. Buyapowa boasts an impressive client list which spans over 100 enterprises incorporating leading brands and retailers. The platform allows clients to equip and incentivise their customers, through the power of word-of-mouth marketing. The business is going from strength to strength, and we are delighted to be supporting them on their journey.”

Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, CEO at Funding London, adds: “Buyapowa has an impressive track record under their belt. Gideon and his team have built an excellent product that delivers great value to its customers. We are thrilled that the capital provided by GLIF will help them expand the team and unlock further growth in the UK and other international markets.”

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.

Print and Digital media business, Country and Town House, based in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, has secured a £400,000 loan from the Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF).  The funding will enable the company to recruit additional staff across their marketing and sales departments and upgrade their web platform.

Country & Town House is the go-to destination for trusted, inspiring and uplifting content that enhances readers’ lifestyles wherever they live and champions living a balanced life. Underpinned by the values of Britishness, luxury and sustainability, Country & Town House reaches an audience of over half a million readers through its printed magazines and supplements, newsletters, podcasts and website. 

Country & Town House connects its readers with advertising partners through engaging and influential content across different lifestyle categories including Culture, Style, Interiors, Property, Schools, Food & Drink, Hotels & Travel and Health & Wellbeing, highlighting sustainable products, practices, brands and companies wherever relevant.

The business responded quickly to the impact of Covid-19 moving to bi-monthly print editions, supported by a greater focus on its digital offering.

Jeremy Isaac, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Country and Town House commented: “When COVID-19 hit, it was a challenging time for all companies in the media sector. As a business we took the decision to reduce the frequency of our print offering and ramp up our focus on the digital side. I firmly believe our digital strategy will be the key to maintaining our growth going forward.  The funding will allow us to further build upon the strong brand values from the print side of the business and roll these elements out digitally. The finance will also allow us to implement and support our digital strategy by being able to recruit a dedicated online team. Our thanks to The FSE Group for supporting our growth ambitions and helping us to secure the necessary finance.”

David Booth, Investment Manager for The FSE Group, who manages the £55 million GLIF debt fund on behalf of Funding London, commented: “Jeremy has established a strong London based media business with a focus on key markets in both print and digital. We were impressed by the business model, the management team and the willingness to adapt to change. We are delighted to be supporting Jeremy and his team and look forward to seeing their growth journey across the coming years.”

Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, CEO at Funding London, adds: “Being a serial entrepreneur, Jeremy is well equipped to identify opportunities even in the most challenging environments. The adoption of online delivery models has given resilience across many sectors under current circumstances.  We are delighted to support the expansion of Country and Town House’s digital team which will enable them to strengthen their market position and unlock growth in the future.”

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.

Southwark based technology platform business, Landmrk, has received a £225,000 loan from the Greater London Investment Fund via The FSE Group. The loan is backed by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

The funding will enable 15 new jobs to be created within the company over the next three years whilst maintaining investment into further developing the existing platform, which is essential for the company as it adjusts to the “new normal” stage of operating in a COVID-19 impacted world.

Founded in 2017 by Seth Jackson as a spin out from his digital advertising agency, Strange Thoughts Ltd, Landmrk enables brands to run promotional campaigns by building smartphone web applications to engage their audiences.

The platform builds the campaign by placing digital content experiences at physical locations on a map in the real world. These promotions engage a brand’s followers, enticing them to find and unlock the experience by travelling to the location.

During COVID-19 times, the Landmrk platform has been modified to allow followers to unlock digital experiences in their own homes, keeping travel to a minimum.

Seth Jackson, Founder and CEO of Landmrk, commented: “With the loan received from GLIF via The FSE Group, we will be able to continue researching options and developing the app’s software to offer the best experience for both brands and followers in these challenging times. Over the next three years, the finance will help us expand our team by hiring 15 new employees to support the development and achieve our growth plans.”

Landmrk currently has two million users who have spent c40,000 hours on the platform. The easing of travel restrictions means the business can explore safe opportunities for them to resume unlocking experiences at specific locations when it is safe to do so.

Paul Shadbolt, Investment Manager for The FSE Group, which manages the £55 million GLIF debt fund on behalf of Funding London, commented: “Seth is a successful entrepreneur with previous experience of scaling up SMEs. Brands are always looking to enhanced engagement with their followers and the Landmrk app has been instrumental in producing strong marketing campaigns in this growth sector. Seth has demonstrated flexibility and adapted his product to the current economic climate and has a healthy pipeline. GLIF is keen to support innovative high growth businesses in Greater London, and with job creation for the local economy included in their plans, we were pleased to be able to offer Landmrk the loan funding they need to execute their expansion strategy.”

Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, CEO at Funding London, adds: “Seth and the team have demonstrated resilience and determination to adapt their business to succeed in the recent extremely challenging conditions. We are delighted that the GLIF loan will enable Landmrk’s team expansion and fuel their growth strategy.  As we emerge from travel restrictions, Landmrk is well poised to go from strength to strength”

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.

Hampshire based Online Safety have secured a £70,000 growth loan to further develop their web-based education and training platform which helps to keep children safe online.

Lee Hayward established Online Safety (OSUK) in 2018, bringing with him safeguarding experience and a passion for the subject. His drive comes from days spent as a police officer where he delivered tailored and specialised training on how to keep children safe online. Lee wanted to impart this knowledge further afield to a wider audience and realised that he had identified a need to not only progress online safety education to help families and school settings, but to educate any professionals or adults involved in that child’s network. All of this work has one aim: to help adults work together to better protect children whilst they are online.

Families can access OSUK’s age-specific web-based products which contain a vast library of self-help information and useful bitesize videos. These help people to easily learn about online safety together in a clear and concise way. This gives families confidence and a basic level of understanding in relation to online safety.

OSUK is also committed to training and educating schools for at least a year with face-to-face sessions and monthly calls, keeping teachers upskilled with the most current safety information. Likewise support service professionals can work with OSUK to attend online events and courses to help them put together bespoke packages to assist and support any families with whom they work.

Lee Heywood, Founder and Director of Online Safety, commented: “When I established OSUK, my vision was clear: to bring the right people together, to improve confidence and ability for everyone operating in the fast-paced digital world by increasing their understanding of the topic so that children could be better safeguarded. The funding received from the Enterprise M3 Expansion Loan Scheme will be used to market the roll-out of the premium subscription service, scheduled for this year and will also include the appointment of new employees to support this. I would like to extend my thanks to James at The FSE Group who guided me through the process to secure the funding.”

James Edwards, Investment Manager at The FSE Group, which manages the EM3 Expansion Loan Scheme on behalf of Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), added: “In Lee, OSUK has a committed director with excellent sector knowledge and contacts. The service offered to schools is far superior to the few others that are available and as a result the company has a growing revenue stream from its services to schools and local authorities, with a customer retention rate at over 90%. With the recent addition of its app, the company is well-positioned to take advantage of the strong growth prospects in this expanding market and we look forward to working with Lee to help him achieve these goals.”

Kathy Slack, Director, Enterprise M3 LEP, comments: "Knowing how to keep children safe online is a worry for any parent, particularly given the wide use of gaming and home study tools now available. This innovative platform will play an important part in safeguarding young people and I’m delighted that Enterprise M3’s expansion loan scheme could help. It’s fantastic to see businesses such as Lee’s growing and attracting new employees, especially given the strong and growing pool of people with advanced digital skills in the EM3 area.”

THE POT KILN (Est.2005) is a destination Country Inn and Rustic Restaurant offering rural chic dining and seasonal menus of hearty and wholesome dishes. Set in a conservation area of outstanding natural beauty and on The Lord Iliffe’s Yattendon Estate, the Pot Kiln enjoys unrivalled access to nine thousand acres of woods and farmland with a nutritious wild food larder of game and seasonal foraging at its kitchen door. The Pot Kiln partners, Katie and Rocky, share a compassionate ideology to avoid produce from intensive farming practices and so promote respect and care for nature’s plants, animals and landscape.

While closed in 2019 for nine months and a £1.5 million renovation, a further twelve months of enforced closures followed, nevertheless, business has soared to a ten-year high. Strategic diversification has led to new revenues from ten en-suite guest rooms, venue hire for weddings and TV companies, an annual programme of cultural events, rural courses and members’ subscriptions from its dining club chaired by Raymond Blanc OBE. This month, following eighteen years of consistent five-star national media coverage and awards, the Pot Kiln has received a Michelin Good Cooking Plate Award and with reviews from millions of TripAdvisor travellers, a listing in the 10% of Top Restaurants Worldwide.

Back in 2019, The FSE Group, through the Thames Valley Berkshire Funding Escalator supported the business with expansion finance to expand its business and operations.

“It is fantastic to see the Pot Kiln thriving as we ease out of COVID-19 restrictions. The hospitality trade has been hit hard by the pandemic, with many restaurants and venues closing. But a loyal customer base and beautiful renovations have enabled the Pot Kiln to exploit its unique location and expand into a real multi-revenue enterprise. Encouraging times are ahead for Katie and Rocky - we look forward to watching their vision grow as they seek to establish a venue of culinary and cultural distinction.” Cheryl Weeks – The FSE Group / Head of Funds South-East

For more information about The Pot Kiln visit: https://www.potkiln.org/

For more information about The FSE Group and the Thames Valley Berkshire Funding Escalator visit: https://www.thefsegroup.com/fund/thames-valley-berkshire-funding-escalator/