Having set up shop at the end of 2011, prepaid card provider Pockit has secured the backing of a host of well-known angel investors.

Joining Sir Alex Ferguson in the £1 million deal is Mark Newton-Jones, interim CEO of retailer Mothercare, Denis Shafranik, Simon Barklem and Ian Langley.

Founded by the family team of Danny, Yuvraj and Virraj Jatania, Pockit provides a prepaid card which is issued under the MasterCard brand. Users of the card are able to earn up to 10 per cent cashback from high street retailers.

The capital is being used to build out the senior management team, invest in a new website and begin a ‘major marketing push’.

Commenting on his investment, Ferguson says, ‘I am excited by the plans for Pockit, their management team is superbly placed as the Jatania family has an outstanding track record of building businesses from the ground up and growing brands.’

The £1 million seed funding round sits on top of a previous transaction which saw Lornamead co-founder Danny Jatania inject an identical sum. 

Virraj Jatania, co-founder of the company, adds, ‘The backing from Sir Alex Ferguson and Mark-Newton Jones […] demonstrates the confidence they have in our business model and growth plans.

‘Whilst they come from completely different backgrounds, football and retail respectively, both of them have shown how an organisation can be built to dominate their space and help change their industries.’

Jatania says that both Ferguson and Newton-Jones have the entrepreneurial traits and understanding of what it takes to build customer and stakeholder loyalty that Pockit has.

Danny Jatania and his brothers previously set up Lornamead Group in 1978, which grew into a marketer in personal care involving brands such as Harmony and Simple. It now has a turnover in the UK of £100 million and was sold to Hong Kong-based conglomerate Li and Fung in 2013.