Tech company raises £1.5m for international expansion
A Midlands company whose software helps businesses to manage and motivate their sales teams has raised a further £1.5m from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) and Mercia Ventures.
The latest round of funding will enable OneUp Sales, based in Tamworth, to build its customer base in the US, where it has already gained a strong foothold, and further develop its product.
OneUp Sales' platform, which uses gaming technology, enables managers to gain insights, improve performance, incentivise sales teams and celebrate success. It is the only platform of its type that enables sales teams to form leagues and compete against each other in automated online competitions.
Founded in 2016 by former games developers Derry Holt and James Heath, OneUp Sales currently employs 40 people and has been achieving year-on-year growth. It now has annual recurring revenue (ARR) of £2.7m, and serves over 350 customers including data storage specialist Hitachi Vantara and leading recruitment agencies such as Xcede and Premier Group.
The latest investment follows three earlier funding rounds from Mercia and the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, bringing the total the company has raised to date to over £5m.
Derry Holt, CEO of OneUp Sales, said: "We started OneUp Sales because we saw the potential to use gaming technology to make sales more motivational - to empower and inspire sales teams instead of filling them with dread. The company has come a long way in the past nine years and we now have customers worldwide. Having achieved initial success in the US, the next step is to focus on boosting sales in this huge potential market. The funding will help us to do that.”
David Baker, Investment Manager at Mercia, said: “OneUp Sales has been a pioneer in the field of sales management systems. Mercia supported it from the start and it has been rewarding to watch its continued growth and development. We look forward to working with Derry, James and the team as they continue to scale the business.”
Debbie Sorby, Senior Investment Manager at the British Business Bank, said: “We are pleased that our investment in OneUp Sales over the years has helped the company grow and expand in this scale. The Midlands Engine Investment Fund prides itself in helping businesses in the region get access to the right type of finance and we hope to help more Midlands businesses succeed in the future.”
The Midlands Engine Investment Fund is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.
