Jul 13, 2020

Online marketplace OnBuy raises £5m Series A UK-based eCommerce business OnBuy is set to launch globally this summer, after securing a £5 million Series A investment. The Series A funding was raised from leading London-based VC firm Fuel Ventures and other experienced investors including Nathalie Gaveau, the co-founder of Priceminister, a French marketplace later acquired by Rakuten. The online marketplace offers businesses a more transparent platform to sell their products to buyers, and has seen record sales in the past year as savvy consumers seek out better deals. Following a 1100% sales increase in the past year, OnBuy has an aggressive international expansion plan into 140 new territories – including the US, Germany, France, Spain and the UAE. To accommodate this rapid growth, OnBuy has tripled its workforce to over 50 full-time staff. Since launching in November 2016, OnBuy has amassed over eight million customers and more than 25 million products, with monthly visitors now trending at over four million along with over 400 retailers joining every month. Paton said: “The injection of this additional funding not only allows us to substantially grow the operational side of the business, but it gives the OnBuy team backing from phenomenal investors who can bring an array of eCommerce experience and expertise to the table, bolstering an already strong globalisation strategy. “2020 is a coming-of-age era for OnBuy, where we’ve seen some of the world’s largest brands and retailers come on board. By having products from the leading household names available, including Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Kimberly-Clark, we are driving better competition which feeds into better pricing for consumers across a huge variety of products. “We’re gearing up for an enormous expansion into over 140 new countries, which will allow OnBuy to become the first global marketplace and further set ourselves apart from the competition.” Mark Pearson from Fuel Ventures, commented: “In recent years the VC world has largely turned its back on marketplaces. They are notoriously hard to build and even harder to grow, given that the market is dominated by some of the largest companies in the world. However, it’s clear from seeing OnBuy’s unique model, their achievements to date and the impressive year-on-year growth that they have found the right formula for long-term success. “The decision to invest in OnBuy was an easy one for Fuel Ventures: it is now on the verge of becoming a serious global player, with some of the largest retailers and brands in the industry flooding to join the world’s fastest-growing marketplace.”