The investment is supported by the European Investment Bank, One North East and the European Regional Development Fund and follows Northstar’s initial £60,000 funding round from its Proof of Concept Fund in 2009.

The latest funding round will allow the business to recruit more staff and improve its product offering.

Since the first investment, founder Lee Duddell has recruited a management team, appointing managing director Nick Imrie who is a former board director of domainnames.com.

Imrie says, ‘We have a panel of 30,000 regular internet users which we use to deliver an efficient and cost effective way of allowing our customers to see how people navigate their site, what they look at and generally how they find the experience.’

Michelle Cooper, investment manager at Northstar, adds, ‘This investment demonstrates our recognition of the huge potential for the company to affirm its position as a market leader in user experience insight services.

‘In this exciting and fast-moving space, there are many opportunities for the company to achieve even greater commercial success, backed by the expertise of the expanding management team.’

WhatUsersDo has a client base that includes BT, LastMinute, Comet, Photobox, DietChef and UKBathrooms.

The £20 million Finance for Business for North East Accelerator Fund invests in high growth, early-stage businesses, and will complete investments of between £100,000 and £500,000.