Ecrebo, a retail point of sale marketing specialist, has secured a GBP12 million investment from Air Miles and Nectar founder Sir Keith Mills and former Warburg Pincus head of Europe, Joseph Schull.
The new funding will support increased investment in product and technology development for Ecrebo’s digital marketing platform, and will help to accelerate the retail technology specialist’s global expansion, with a particular focus on North America.
This will build on Ecrebo’s success to date in Europe, and entry into the American market in 2016. The funds will also be used to recruit new talent into Ecrebo’s growing team.
Mills and Schull will join Ecrebo’s board as directors alongside the company’s founders, Dr Hassan Hajji and David Vernon. Existing investor Octopus Ventures, one of Europe’s largest venture capital teams, is also participating in the investment round and will continue to be represented on the board.
Ecrebo’s technology platform enables retailers to deliver targeted offers and messages to customers at the checkout alongside their receipt or digital receipt. Since 2010, the Ecrebo platform has processed more than GBP35 billion in transactions for some of the world’s leading retailers, including M&S, Waitrose, and PANDORA, and generated more than GBP500 million in additional sales. The Reading-based business also recently featured in the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 2016 as one of the UK’s fastest-growing technology companies.
Mills says: “I am delighted to announce this investment in Ecrebo, who impressed me with their firmly-established credentials and leadership within the retail technology sector. Ecrebo’s technology gives retailers the ability to open up a marketing channel that is fully retailer-owned, enabling them to reach all their customers and engage them on a one-to-one basis in a way which is personalised, rewarding and convenient. I am looking forward to working closely with the Ecrebo team in the coming months to help them grow the business both in the UK and internationally.”
Schull says: “Ecrebo’s technology platform is highly differentiated and greatly valued by the company’s world-class customers, who derive demonstrable ROI from it. Hassan Hajji and his colleagues have developed an ingenious application which seamlessly integrates with customers’ point of sale infrastructure and enables personalised communication at the till, which can be rapidly rolled out at scale. We see considerable growth potential from new and innovative products which are already in development, as well as further geographic expansion to build on the successes achieved to date.”
Hajji says: “We are delighted to secure investment from Sir Keith Mills and Joseph Schull and to welcome them both to our board. Their long-standing retail expertise and investment experience will help to further enhance our product offering, recruit the best talent, and expand into North America, and beyond. We’re really excited about the impact this investment will have on our customers, employees and our technology in helping us to reach our full potential.”
