Serial entrepreneur Tom Maxfield has joined start-up search engine optimisation software business Webpromoter360 as the company secures a £72,000 investment from Northstar Ventures.
Serial entrepreneur Tom Maxfield has joined start-up search engine optimisation software business Webpromoter360 as the company secures a £72,000 investment from Northstar Ventures.
Maxfield will become a non-executive director of the Houghton-le-Spring business and will assist in developing a growth plan that includes adding headcount. Webpromoter360 has developed software, named 4thAspect.com, which aims to improve search engine optimisation and the reporting processes for internet marketing.
It is the second investment from Northstar in the business, which founders David and Claire Glynn launched last year after selling another web marketing company. The venture firm committed £100,000 in seed funding last year.
The fresh investment valued at £72,000 has been made through the Finance for Business North East Proof of Concept Fund, which is managed by Northstar and is backed by the European Regional Development Fund, European Investment Bank and One North East.
Maxfield met the Glynns through the Entrepreneurs Forum, of which he is chairman, and has helped to mentor them during the past five years.
Maxfield comments, ‘What 4thAspect.com offers is a novel way for agencies to semi-automate the process, while staying close to clients in the competitive world of digital marketing.’
He continues, ‘It’s a unique product and allows clients to improve their service to customers by streamlining their work and taking the drudgery out of creating links to their websites and reporting to their clients. Interest is most likely to come from web-marketers and SEO agencies.
Richard Exley, head of the Proof of Concept Fund, adds, ‘Search is a hot topic and an area in which we made three investments last year. SEO is a large part of search and that’s what this is about – intelligent search, if you like.’
Webpromoter360 also plans to add eight full-time employees to the business in sales, account management and software engineering.
Tom Maxfield joined Sage in 1984 as a sales director and helped transform the company into a global business. He left in 1997.
