Shutl, the on demand delivery platform, has secured £650,000 in funding in a round led by Hummingbird Ventures and a major European postal group, it has been announced.
Founded in 2008 by Tom Allason – who had previously founded eCourier.co.uk – Shutl connects retailers to local same-day courier companies, enabling delivery to both online and in-store customers within just 90 minutes.
While Hummingbird Ventures is reinvesting in Shutl, the business has also attracted new investment from a major European postal group, which plans to assess and develop Shutl’s market extension possibilities across Europe to determine the best strategic fit alongside their existing services.
According to Shutl, the new investment will be used to build a sales team, expand its in-house software development team and explore international opportunities.
Allason, who was named a Growing Business Young Gun in 2007, said: “I am particularly excited at the prospect of collaborating with a strategic investor that already has local infrastructure and retailer customers across Europe.
“We were in discussion with a number of VCs when we were approached by this party [but]r felt that no traditional investor could bring as much to the table. We still expect to look for series A funding towards the end of 2011, however we now have enough runway to launch with several additional UK multi-channel retailers and to begin exploring the market right across Europe.”
Barend Van Den Brande, managing partner of Hummingbird Ventures, commented: “Shutl has a disruptive proposition that is loved by customers and operates within the rapidly growing ecommerce market.
“These fundamentals alone are very attractive to an investor but now we also have a partner capable of truly accelerating Shutl’s market potential.”
Shutl was named as the Angel/VC backed business of the year in the 2010 Startups Awards.