Leading developer of mobile market research technologies, RealityMine, is set to triple its turnover over the next 12 months, after securing an additional £1.6m of investment.
The business, which has headquarters in Manchester and offices in New York, has attracted investment from the North West Fund for Digital and Creative, the Greater Manchester Investment Fund and the GP Bullhound Sidecar Fund. Simon Wilkinson, former CEO of Myriad Group, one of the largest global independent providers of mobile handset software and services, has also invested in RealityMine and has joined the company’s board as a non-executive director.
RealityMine, will triple its turnover in 2014 to £2.6m, and has raised this additional investment in order to more aggressively drive forward its strategic plan and again almost triple growth to £7.5m in 2015. The funds will be used to recruit additional technical, sales and client support staff at its Trafford-based office.
The company was founded in April 2012 by mobile veteran and CEO of Apadmi, Garry Partington, and research expert, Rolfe Swinton, and has since grown to employ 41 people. Its market-leading Software as a Service (SaaS) platform enables market researchers to passively collect and analyse the digital activity of opt-in panellists, across devices including mobile phones, tablets, PCs and smart TVs. The data is then used by international market research groups, brands and media, including WPP, ESPN, Starcom, L’Oreal, Millward Brown, Ipsos and Mediavest, to help them improve their understanding of consumer behaviour.
Commenting on the investment, RealityMine’s CEO Garry Partington said, “RealityMine has attracted a total £2.2m of investment across the last 18 months, which is a great endorsement of the team, the business opportunity and the unique technology we have developed. We have grown by over 300% revenue in the last 12 months and, with the help of the new funding, are on target to achieve similar growth in 2015.”
Fred Mendelsohn, investment director at AXM Venture Capital, which manages The North West Fund for Digital & Creative, added, “We are delighted to support RealityMine’s exceptionally talented management team. The company is a fast-growing real global business and promises excellent growth potential.”
The North West Fund for Digital & Creative is part of The North West Fund and is financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank. GP Bullhound is an international technology investment banking group.
Since launching in April 2012, RealityMine has expanded rapidly and its services are now live in a staggering 20 countries around the world and in every continent except Antarctica. The company has offices in the UK and New York and won the Innovation and Enterprise category at the 2014 inaugural Trafford Business Awards.
