Social impact startup Breezie has raised £600k to scale its business, make key hires and trial pilots in the US.
The London-based business provides tablets with a hassle-free stripped down operating system to 5.7 million UK adults aged 55+.
The investment was raised in six weeks via crowdfunding and from social impact-focused angel network Clearly Social Angels.
More investment
The funding round, 238% of its initial £252,000 target, comes only months after the company raised $1m to further grow the business.
Breezie was founded in 2011 by Jeh Kazimi after he couldn’t get his parents to use Skype properly to see their grandson while they were in India.
The software service has since formed a partnership with Samsung, run a successful NHS pilot and worked with Age UK to help an increasing number of elderly people get online.
Growing and growing
The investment will be used to further scale the business and conquer new markets, with the US as the first target.
Kazimi believes that these funds will enable them to “rapidly scale operations and the brand in the UK, and also start preparing for a push into the US”.
From day one, our goal has been to design and provide a service that makes the internet considerably more accessible for people with little or no technological expertise, without patronising or limiting what they can do.