Retail software business Rangespan has received $5 million (£3.1 million) of investment capital through a deal led by UK firm Octopus Investments.

London-based Rangespan is the brainchild of Ryan Regan and Matt Henderson, former executives at Amazon.

The business works by providing retailers with a system to ‘target, expand and optimise product ranges’. It uses market data and vendor management, and has clients including Tesco, Argos and Asda.

To coincide with the investment deal, Rangespan is set to announce its new market data service, RangeRank. ‘A big data bank and a wide relevant product range are essential to online success,’ says co-founder Matt Henderson. ‘RangeRank allows retailers to instantly leverage the power of both.’

Speaking exclusively to GrowthBusiness, Alliott Cole, principal in the ventures team at Octopus and lead on the deal, says, ‘We work hard to find really talented teams to partner.’

‘In Rangespan we have found a team whose depth of expertise, insight and drive is matched only by their ambition to build a very substantial business. We look forward to helping them achieve this goal.’

The investment for Octopus comes shortly after it participated in a venture round with Wellington Partners and a host of angels which saw iPhone app business YPlan lock up £1.06 million.

Regan, co-founder of Rangespan, adds, ‘The ventures team at Octopus has proven to be extremely supportive of the company throughout the past year.

‘With these funds, we are now in a great position to help retailers of all sizes to dramatically grow their sales and profits.’