Product sampling firm SoPost has secured £750,000 of investment as it looks to expand across North America and Europe.
The Newcastle tech start-up specialises in running highly target product sampling campaigns across social media and display advertising with the aim of boosting clients’ sales.
SoPost is planning to use the funds to extend its relationships with publishers, retailers and agencies, expand into new markets, and create new products.
It will also work to increase its footprint across key territories in Europe and North America.
Jonathan Grubin, SoPost’s founder and CEO, said: “We’re building something really special here at SoPost, and over the past eight years have demonstrated our ability to grow quickly and sustainably.
“I’m delighted that our partnership with Maven gives us the ability to accelerate our growth plans, and I’m excited to ramp up our investment in Newcastle, as well as in our key markets.”
Part of the money will also be used to further develop SoPost Campaign Manager, a visualisation platform that allows customers to track all of its key metrics associated with a sampling campaign in real time.
The £750,000 invstment has been secured from the North East Development Capital Fund (NEDCF), which is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Maven Capital Partners.
The Capital Fund is part of the wider £120m North East Fund, which is availables to businesses across Durham, Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear
David Nixon, investment manager at Maven, said: “We have been impressed by how the business has scaled in recent years and the ambition of management to continue to drive sales and platform enhancements, whilst looking to expand into new markets.
“SoPost is an exciting high growth business with a compelling proposition and is an excellent example of the type of company that the North East Development Capital Fund was set-up to support.
“Today’s funding will enable SoPost to accelerate its growth plans and capitalise on the increasing global demand for cosmetic products and online shopping.”
Earlier this year, SoPost was the only North East firm to make Tech Nation’s Upscale programme for fast-growing technology scale-up companies.
The company also made the Tech Track 100 league table – which ranks Britain’s private technology, media and telecoms companies with the fastest-growing sales - in September.
