Essex-based web chat company Ventrica has received £8 million in investment from Mobeus Equity Partners.

The company employs over 500 people to help brands deliver online customer service via phone, email and social media and counts premium brands Jimmy Choo and Fortnum & Mason as well as McDonalds and New Look among its clients.

The funding will be used to open another office in the Netherlands and to expand its ‘top team.’

The company says it has no aspirations to be a large company, preferring to remain a medium sized firm.

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Danielle Garland, Mobeus investment manager said, ‘Ventrica is right in the sweet spot for the growing outsourcing contact centre market – it is large enough to deliver multilingual and leading-edge technology solutions to its blue-chip clients but small enough to be dynamic and innovative and to provide the personalised service its clients require.

‘As more clients onshore back to the UK, Ventrica is very well placed to continue to deliver very strong growth.’

Dino Forte, Ventrica CEO, ‘We have a significant market opportunity and are winning new customer contracts at an increasing rate and of an increasing scale. With Mobeus as a partner, we are well positioned to strengthen our team to support our significant growth whilst also allowing us to better focus on our existing clients which will be our key priority moving forward.’

It is likely that a large percentage of its workforce has come from former call centre Converso, which went plunged into administration in 2016. Its former owner and founder Dino Forte then invited redundant staff to take on roles at Ventrica.