// OnBuy secures £5m from investors to help it expand globally to 140 new territories
// To help with the expansion, the online marketplace has also tripled its workforce
British online marketplace OnBuy is set to launch globally this summer after securing a £5 million cash injection from investors.
The retailer said it recorded a whopping 1100 per cent sales increase in the past year, prompting chief executive Cas Paton to project a turnover of more than £2 billion by 2024.
With the £5 million cash secured through a Series A funding round, OnBuy is now setting its eyes on an ambitious international expansion plan into 140 new territories – including the US, Germany, France, Spain and the UAE.
READ MORE: OnBuy secures £3m to fund ambitious expansion plans
To accommodate this rapid growth, OnBuy has tripled its workforce to over 50 full-time staff.
“The injection of this additional funding not only allows us to substantially grow the operational side of the business, but it gives the OnBuy team backing from phenomenal investors who can bring an array of ecommerce experience and expertise to the table, bolstering an already strong globalisation strategy,” Paton said.
“2020 is a coming-of-age era for OnBuy, where we’ve seen some of the world’s largest brands and retailers come on board.
“By having products from the leading household names available, including Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Kimberly-Clark, we are driving better competition which feeds into better pricing for consumers across a huge variety of products.
“We are well on track to claim 3-5 per cent of the £84 billion UK ecommerce market in the next three years, and we’re aiming for one oer cent of the $3.46 trillion global ecommerce market, equating to $35 billionn, in the next five years.
“We’re gearing up for an enormous expansion into over 140 new countries, which will allow OnBuy to become the first global marketplace and further set ourselves apart from the competition.”
The Series A funding was raised from leading London-based venture capital firm Fuel Ventures and other experienced investors including Nathalie Gaveau, the co-founder of Priceminister, a premium French marketplace later acquired by Rakuten.
Since launching in November 2016, OnBuy has amassed over eight million customers and more than 25 million products, with monthly visitors now trending at over four million along with over 400 retailers joining every month.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
