ShopFully Group, headquartered in Italy where it operates under the national brand DoveConviene, has received €10m funding from Highland Capital Partners Europe.
The round takes the company’s total funding to over €20M in three years – previous investment was received from Principia SGR, 360 Capital Partners and Merifin.
ShopFully Group’s platform, founded in 2010, is used by over 13 million people worldwide to help them prepare and plan their purchases in physical stores, in the smartest way possible.
The digital platform offers a wealth of geo-located information including details about promotions, products, shops, opening times, and contacts of the main retailers and brands. The service is available both online through the website as well through the free app developed for all major mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Windows8, Amazon and BlackBerry.
The business is already a leading player in Italy, Spain, USA, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia. Over the past 12 months it has experienced 300% growth internationally and 120% growth in Italy, equating to 6 million new users. The funding will be used to grow the teams in each country; to continue expansion into new territories with an aim of a total of 10 national markets within 2016; and to further develop the platform.
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Stefano Portu, founder and CEO of ShopFully Group, said, “What we are doing is shifting a simple shopper habit from paper to mobile – digitising one of the richest offline media, the commercial flyer – worth about $30 billion worldwide.
“Our expansion into the international market is proceeding as planned – and the mobile boom, a key trend for us, is accelerating fast. During the last 6 months over 50 people have joined the company, and we plan to double staff numbers within the next 18 months. ShopFully Group is a solid and scaleable business – and with this new funding our expansion plans can really accelerate.”
Alessandro Palmieri, founder and CEO of ShopFully Group, said, “We are delighted to be working with the team at Highland. They have the proven expertise and resources to really support international leaders like us.
“More and more, consumers want to make smart decisions about shopping in physical stores and they need geo-localised information to do this. By using our platform, consumers can optimise their shopping time without reducing the enjoyment of shopping.”
Tony Zappalà, Partner at Highland Capital Partners Europe added: “At Highland, we seek to invest in internet, mobile and software companies that have the potential to become global market leaders in their field.
“The strong growth and international scalability of ShopFully Group’s business model fits perfectly with our desire to back European businesses with the capability and ambition to become world-leading businesses.
“With this investment we want to contribute to the expansion and consolidation of a long lasting and valuable business in the retail sector, who we are sure is going to the global leader in this vertical.”
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