Appear Here, the UK’s largest online marketplace for retail and leisure space, has raised $7.5m (£4.75m) of new funding, as it explores further expansion in the UK and internationally.
Venture capital firm Balderton Capital, plus existing investors MMC, Forward and Meyer Bergman took part in the round, which follows on from a £1m fundraising in November 2013.
The company has worked with brands including Jamie Oliver and Black Sheep Coffee.
This significant new investment follows 18 months of dynamic growth from Appear Here, which has facilitated over 500 short-terms lets in the last 18 months and now has over 600 properties available to hire at prime locations across the UK.
The company was founded in 2012 by Ross Bailey, a 22-year-old entrepreneur who started out with his own pop-up shop on Carnaby Street, selling limited edition T-shirts to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee
Now eight out of the UK’s ten biggest retail landlords have now signed exclusive deals with Appear Here for marketing their space, including British Land, Land Securities and Hammerson.
Over the last 12 months, Appear Here has seen the number of properties listed increase 200 per cent to over 600 sites with over 10,000 brands now searching the database at any one time, up from 3,000 in 2013.
Bailey said: “The investment enables international expansion in 2015, and also further investment in our customer service: we have already developed five-star service for customers – including a concierge service, and online contracts and payments, which make it even easier for people to turn their ideas into reality.”
