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Tech firm powering House of Fraser commerce app raises $4m Series A

London-based Poq, which provides a Software-as-a-Service platform for real apps, has raised $4m (approx. £3.05m) in Series A funding for its platform.

The funding round was led by venture and growth capital firm Beringea and drew additional investment from Seedcamp and Venrex, who have each previously contributed seed funding to the tech firm.

Poq, which already works with retailers like House of Fraser and Holland and Barratt now hopes to put the funding to work by tripling the size of its development team and begin work on its international expansion plans.

Founded in 2011, the firm provides customer-facing shopping apps for big retailers which also features a full suite of in-app and in-store data insights of customer behaviour.

Commenting on the new investment, co-founder and Chief Executive Oyvind Henriksen outlined how the firm’s apps have already hit £100m in-app revenue, a figure which is growing 600% year-on-year.

He said: “Our mission is to drive more revenue through our platform than previous-generation web-based commerce platforms, through more advanced native app technology.

“Apps provide the best shopping experience on mobile, where customers are logged in forever and can pay with a fingerprint, and retailers who don’t offer apps will lose out to those who do. We are really excited about closing this funding round and continuing to lead the app commerce revolution.”

Rob Hodgkinson, Investment Director at Beringea believes the app is a crucial link for mainstream retailers between online and in-store experiences.

He commented: “At Beringea, we are experienced in working with ecommerce businesses and we love that Poq’s offering is helping many mainstream retailers create shopping apps to complement their main ecommerce sites and bridge the gap between online and in-store.”