SalesGossip oversubscribed for second round of angel investment
- The new financing will see SalesGossip revolutionise the way fashion retailers plan promotions
11 FEBRUARY 2014, LONDON, UK – SalesGossip.co.uk, the revolutionary start-up that locates and curates every fashion and beauty promotion on the high street and online, has just closed its second round of angel investment at just under $1 million (£600,000 —£100,000 over target). This follows an initial angel funding round of £250,000 after SalesGossip won a prestigious enterprise competition run by LinkedIn and RBS. Over 75% of the initial investors reinvested in this second round which represented a 225% uplift on their original investment.
Since its launch in 2012, SalesGossip has experienced rapid adoption among UK shoppers with month-on-month growth of over 20%. Today, SalesGossip has over 300,000 registered subscribers to its service and represents 900 brands that make up roughly 90% of the UK fashion and beauty retail sector. These brands includes household name department stores such as John Lewis, M&S, Liberty and House of Fraser, online retailer Amazon, fashion stores including Accessorize, Armani, Joseph, Net-a-Porter, Banana Republic, J Crew and Uniqlo, children and parenting stores such as Isabella Oliver, Petit Bateaux and Mothercare as well as beauty stores such as L’Ocittane, Liz Earle, Boots and Clarins. The SalesGossip service is currently available online and through a personalised mobile web app.
Elizabetta Camilleri, Co-founder and CEO, said: “We were very pleased by the amount of interest we received in our second round, especially because we were oversubscribed. I think our success has shown that retailers and shoppers alike want smarter, more targeted promotions. Fashion retailers in the UK are crying out for more efficient ways to attract online traffic and footfall and we have found a way to do it that also benefits tech-savvy shoppers.”
Emilio Sanz, Co-founder and CTO of SalesGossip, continued: “Our next steps are to focus on accelerating our rapid growth both in the UK and internationally, increasing the value we provide to both retailers and consumers, and making mobile core to the business. We’re going to look at increased personalisation through investment in data mining technology so we can really dovetail promotions with consumer’s interests. We will also strengthen our proposition for both shoppers and retailers by launching in-store promotions tracking and mobile native apps.”
The investors supporting SalesGossip’s financial growth include:
- Sean Phelan and Audrey Mandela, co-founders of Multimap.com, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2007
- Co-founder of Mr and Mrs Smith, Andrew Grahame
- Mapamundi, a network of Spanish high-profile business people and entrepreneurs
- MD of Global Reach Investments, Colin Rushmere
- Robin McIlvenny, Partner at Ptarmigan Capital Limited
- Serial tech angel investor, Stephen Bullock
Sean Phelan, co-founder of Multimap.com, said, “We’ve been very impressed by the way Elizabetta, Emilio and their team have made big-data analytics accessible to fashion retailers and brands, and by the rapid take-up of the SalesGossip services. We’re delighted to be supporting this round.”
To download the app, please visit m.salesgossip.co.uk or for more information, visit SalesGossip.co.uk, check Facebook.com/SalesGossip or @SalesGossip on Twitter.
About SalesGossip
SalesGossip is an online and mobile portal offering exclusive, comprehensive information about pop-up sales, flash sales, sample sales, seasonal reductions and discount codes before they are released to the general public. Members of the site can browse sales by store, product category or sale type and all content is provided with full fashion editorial content.
Elizabetta Camilleri and Emilio Sanz established SalesGossip in 2011 while working together in an Incubator platform at the London Business School. Elizabetta has experience working with large-scale businesses in prominent marketing roles and Emilio is an expert in building mobile and web innovative solutions having worked with leading mobile companies Index Multimedia and Neomobile in Europe and Asia.
For more information please contact:
Kwittken + Company
Niamh O’Grady or Liz Lockhart
T. 020 7401 8001
E. nogrady@kwitco.com / llockhart@kwitco.com