Retail app commerce startup Poq has landed $4m in Series A funding in a round led by growth and venture investor Beringea.
The company, which provides a SaaS platform to allow retailers to offer customer-facing shopping apps, also drew support from existing investors Seedcamp and Venrex.
Launched in 2011 in London, the company is behind the apps of retailers such as House of Fraser, Missguided and Liberty.
Oyvind Henriksen, CEO and co-founder of Poq, said: “The app economy is the world’s fastest growing economy. Our platform is no exception, having already hit £100m in app revenue and growing 600% year-on-year. Our mission is to drive more revenue through our platform than previous-generation web-based commerce platforms, through more advanced native app technology.
“Apps provide the best shopping experience on mobile, where customers are logged in forever and can pay with a fingerprint, and retailers who don’t offer apps will lose out to those who do. We are really excited about closing this funding round and continuing to lead the app commerce revolution,” he added.
The company said it will use the money to triple its development team and boost its international expansion.
Rob Hodgkinson, investment director at Beringea said: “At Beringea, we are experienced in working with ecommerce businesses and we love that Poq’s offering is helping many mainstream retailers create shopping apps to complement their main ecommerce sites and bridge the gap between online and in-store.
“The true value for retailers in working with Poq is not just that they can quickly build well designed, functional shopping apps that unify brand experience, but the data that they gain from having customers logged into the app. Poq also rolls out new code each week, so their clients’ apps are never out of date. Other retail apps are often eight or nine months in the making and already out of date by the time they get to market,” concluded the director.