Tussell, a London-based company founded in 2015, has raised £1m in Seed funding.
The startup, now valued at £5m, provides online data on government purchasing, allowing companies to discover trends and opportunities in public procurement.
Tussell received support from a range of private investors, including Lord Young of Graffham, former cabinet minister and David Cameron’s enterprise advisor, who also sits on the firm’s board.
Other backers included Mike Soutar and Tim Ewington, the co-founders of Shortlist Media; Donal Smith, the co-founder of FinTech firm Credit Benchmark; and Duncan Calam, a partner at Bridgepoint.
All investors all participated in the round in a private capacity.
Founded by Gus Tugendhat, an entrepreneur with two decades worth of experience in finance, technology and data.
“Tussell fills a crucial gap in the market, providing context and intelligence on public sector procurement, a marketplace worth £144bn in 2017, which nevertheless has not been easy to analyse – until now. Deep insight into this huge and influential marketplace is now available to all buyers and suppliers, helping to make public procurement more open and competitive,” said the founder.
The company says it is working with a growing rosta of clients including EY, Lloyds bank, Action For Children, Morgan Stanley, Towergate, Bain & Company and the Royal College of Physicians.
“The UK government’s unparalleled information transparency on procurement has created an environment for businesses like ours to build value-added services on top of open data. This funding round is helping Tussell to consolidate our position as the authoritative source of data on UK public procurement, allowing us to capitalise on the interest generated by our service. We value the backing and support of our investors and are very excited about this next phase of our growth as a business,” the founder concluded.
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