A Northern Ireland start-up led by a 23-year-old entrepreneur, which aims to help businesses get closer to their customers via apps, has raised more than £200,000 (€234,000) in a new crowdfunding campaign in just over a week.
Hurree, which is a marketing automation platform for apps, is hoping to raise £300,000 within the next 19 days.
The start-up has already secured investment from TechStartNI, Rockfirst Capital and Foresight Group, who together provided £300,000 seed funding in 2015.
Hurree chief executive Aaron Gibson said the company’s mission is to “make it as easy as possible for businesses to develop and strengthen relationships just as you would personally with friends and family”.
Mr Gibson added: “A message you send to your mum is probably not the same message you would send to a best friend and this idea of tailoring messages for individuals is one that is at the very heart of Hurree.”
The company’s platform is aimed chiefly at developers and marketers and the start-up claims its product allows brands to predict behaviours and tailor marketing campaigns to individual app users.
The firm intends to use part of its crowdfunded finance – currently at more than £202,000 – to strengthen its sales and support and further develop its product.
Investment
Meanwhile, there is growing evidence of an “increasing appetite” among external organisations to invest in Northern Ireland businesses, according to Belfast law firm Carson McDowell and Goodbody Stockbrokers.
At the Growth Equity Conference in Belfast on Thursday, Don Harrington, a director with Goodbody’s investment banking team, said: “The search for yield is driving an increased level of investment to private-equity funds who are keen to invest and back ambitious companies. Northern Ireland companies are beginning to attract the attention of London-based and international private-equity investors including our recent AIM/ESM-listed client and patient-capital investor Draper Esprit plc.”
Goodbody estimates there are at least 200 companies in the North that would be attractive propositions for private-equity investors.
