Frost Brooks has achieved what it calls the first ‘deal with a significant capital raising’ for the firm and added The Parcel Monkey Group to its portfolio.
The business being backed was set up by e-commerce entrepreneur Nav Ramiah and provides cheaper parcel delivery prices by grouping shipments and booking them through one account.
Parcel Monkey, its delivery comparison service, has facilitated more than 600,000 parcel deliveries from 300,000 registered customers using couriers such as DHL, Parcel Force and City Link.
The undisclosed amount of capital has been raised so that the company can boost its brand awareness of its new services and ensure the business is able to make the most of the busy festive period.
Ramiah, CEO of The Parcel Monkey Group, says, ‘This is a great deal for us and I think it’s a great statement of faith in the business and its excellent potential that we have succeeded in securing this investment.
‘E-commerce is one of the most exciting and high-growth areas of the UK economy and last year was the second fastest expanding market in Europe so it offers us great opportunities to build and scale the business.’
Recent developments for Parcel Monkey have seen it launch Cloud Fulfilment, a pay-as-you-go product storage, pick-and-pack and dispatch service that links with sales channels including eBay and Amazon.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research predict that e-commerce sales in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, The Netherlands, Italy, Poland and Spain are set to reach a combined £111.2 billion in 2014.
Miles Frost, managing partner at Frost Brooks, comments, ‘We believe we could not have started with a better business and entrepreneur than Nav’s Parcel Monkey Group.
‘It has a revolutionary, market-leading customer proposition, exciting new services and s globally scalable.’
Frost Brooks has a mandate to invest between £1 million and £10 million of capital and has investors from the senior business community. Both founders, Mike Frost and Peter Brooks, both personally contribute to each deal, and did so this time alongside high net worth individuals and family offices.