Aero Commerce has secured growth funding for its eCommerce platform.
The North East firm said it is accelerating its growth strategy to support the rapidly expanding online retail sector after securing its latest round of investment, taking funding to £1.4m in less than a year.
The latest round includes investment from the North East Development Capital Fund – supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Maven – the Future Fund, a government scheme backed by the British Business Bank, and Aero Commerce founder Richard Bendelow.
With more than 20 years’ experience in retail, eCommerce and software development, Bendelow and fellow director and founder Matt Burton have established Aero Commerce as one of the fastest–growing eCommerce platform providers in the UK.
Having already handled approaching £100m worth of online retail transactions through its platform, Aero, in its first 12 months, the company is predicting more than a quarter of a billion pounds worth of eCommerce activity in 2021.
The latest investment will support increasing Aero Commerce’s market presence as it expands its network of 60 UK partner agencies, which integrate the Aero platform into ecommerce sites they build for retailers.
The company anticipates doubling its workforce in the next 12 months to provide more support to its network of partner agencies, as well as financial transaction providers, such as PayPal and Klarna.
Richard Bendelow, CEO and founder of Aero Commerce said: “eCommerce is fundamental to the future of retail and has been brought into sharp focus by the events of the past 12 months.
“As a result, we are experiencing strong demand for our ecommerce platform and a growing pipeline of partner agencies looking to build Aero into online retail operations for national and international brands.
“Our combined experience of the booming ecommerce market, both prior to establishing Aero Commerce and during this truly unprecedented period, has built a reputation for the business across the web developer and retail sectors.
“This has enabled us to expand our partner network of agencies on a national basis, which we will develop further as a result of our latest investment.”
David Nixon, Investment Manager from Maven’s North East office, said: “We are delighted to continue our support for Richard and the team at Aero by leading the latest funding round which will enable the business to execute a number of exciting growth plans.
“Existing online retailers are looking for more effective and secure ecommerce solutions while the number of businesses establishing sales platforms is growing exponentially, which is creating significant opportunities for Aero’s innovative technology.”