Veeqo is a single online system that allows retailers to manage orders, inventory and shipping in one place, enabling them to ship more in less time while providing real-time customer sales information.
Over 10 years ago, Matt Warren launched an e-commerce company which rapidly became a multi-million-pound multi-channel business selling wristwatches. As his business grew, so too did his frustrations of having to keep track of customer orders, overselling, refunds and an ever-growing team; Matt became frustrated with the lack of efficient technology options available to help him manage his thriving business. It was this problem that led Matt to think about his solution – Veeqo.
Working With The Crowd To Develop An MVP
In early 2013, Matt and his technical partner, CTO Daniel Vartanov, realised that they needed capital to accelerate the development of their MVP. After looking at their options, the company chose Seedrs and successfully raised £30,000 from 66 investors. “Crowdfunding itself was the main draw to how I decided to raise investment,” Matt admits. “Angel investment can be a tricky process and you often have to go down and meet each angel personally, which can be a time-consuming process.”
It makes more sense for startups, angels and other investors to all be together to use one platform. An advantage I saw to Seedrs was the nominee share structure and the platform itself looked nice and just worked better than the others.
Gaining Praise And Accelerating Growth
They were able to prove that they were a lean and hardworking team, so when they successfully completed their MVP within three months, the company returned to Seedrs to successfully raise a further £120K to expand their engineering, sales and design team, and accelerate their growth.
Veeqo’s fast growth has made it a Swansea tech scene superstar and has helped draw attention to the thriving entrepreneurial community in Wales. In mid-2014, as part of a follow-on investment round of £225,000, Veeqo, itself, attracted the attention of New Look founder Tom Singh who knew the management challenges facing retail businesses, all-too-well. In relation as to why he invested in the business’s angel round, Mr Singh said, “Retailing is a difficult business in the best of times. The multi-channel world we live in now demands efficiency, accuracy and real-time information.” And Matt was recently invited to pitch at 10 Downing Street.
Keep up with Veeqo and learn about how it is helping retailers work more efficiently, at veeqo.com.
