Gresham House Ventures, a growth equity investor specialised in scaling businesses driven by technology, customer insight or service excellence, and Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s most active private equity managers, have invested in growing e-commerce deals business RevLifter.
RevLifter operates a sophisticated deals personalisation platform powered by artificial intelligence technology. The business has already acquired high-profile customers in the retail and telecoms space, including Harvey Nichols, Very, Currys PC World, AT&T, BT Broadband and EE.
The GBP3.3 million Series A funding round will see Gresham House and Maven each invest GBP1.5 million, alongside a commitment from existing investors. The investment will support the rapid expansion of the business, which is on track to grow its revenue by 189 per cent year-on-year in 2020. With this financial backing, RevLifter will be able to expand its US-centric presence in EMEA and APAC, as well as target industries such as finance and utilities.
RevLifter technology helps e-commerce businesses eradicate wastage associated with blanket promotions by offering real-time, hyper-personalised deals that improve online browsing conversion rates and encourage higher spend per customer. The additional capital will allow the business to continue to innovate and develop new features related to basket abandonment, push notifications and product recommendations.
Throughout the large-scale disruption brought about by Covid-19, RevLifter’s technology-driven business model has not only proven resilient, it has helped the company capitalise on the abundant growth opportunities in e-commerce, accelerated by the shift to a post-Covid world. The global e-commerce market is now worth approximately USD3 trillion, with the pandemic having quickened the shift away from physical stores to digital shopping by roughly five years – and increased RevLifter’s addressable market by 50 per cent in the past six months.
Thomas Makey, investment director at Gresham House Ventures, says: “Our expertise lies in identifying differentiated businesses targeting large markets through disruptive business models. We believe RevLifter is one such transformative business and look forward to supporting it in its next stage of growth.
“RevLifter is perfectly positioned to capitalise on the most pressing consumer trends. The management team has been focused and strategic in evolving its personalised deals platform. With its existing competitor advantage, RevLifter can now solidify its position as an important partner for any consumer-facing e-commerce business.”
Alexander Sleigh, investment director at Maven Capital Partners, adds: “Maven is very pleased to support RevLifter at this exciting stage of its journey. The surge in online that we are all seeing as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic brings with it increasing customer demands and expectations. The quality of personalised experience that brands need to deliver to customers has never been more important.”
Simon Bird, co-founder and CEO of RevLifter, says: “We are delighted to welcome both Gresham House Ventures and Maven Capital Partners into the RevLifter fold. Knowing we have their belief is an amazing validation of our vision. We will be using the investment to capitalise on our leadership position in this market and continue our rapid expansion into new markets.”
