Trouva is celebrating its second birthday and over 1,000 per cent of growth

Trouva is celebrating both its second birthday today (October 5) and a growth of 1,509 per cent since its launch in 2015.

In just 18 months, Trouva - an online destination for the UK’s independent bricks-and-mortar boutiques - has grown from a seed round to be announced as one of the UK’s top five fastest growing tech businesses at 1,509 per cent growth, as announced by TheNextWeb’s Tech5.

Trouva empowers independent stores on Britain’s high-streets to reach a fast-growing online consumer base. The business also enables customers to shop a carefully curated range of more than 75,000 design-led products from room décor, lighting, tableware and art.

Mandeep Singh, CEO and co-founder, commented: “When we founded Trouva, technological innovation was disrupting the high-street at a fast pace.

“Our mission is to equip independent boutique owners with the latest technology to enable them to have a competitive edge in the digital world. We have built a platform which empowers offline independent stores to compete with retail and e-commerce giants.”

Trouva.com now hosts products from over 350 boutiques in 119 towns and cities across the UK – a 133 per cent increase in registered businesses since 2016.

For Trouva’s rapidly-expanding retailer community, the platform provides the tools to grow revenue streams and compete with retail multiples and e-commerce giants, as well as protect against economic factors such as business rate increases.

As the startup celebrates its second birthday, it also reveals that 11 boutiques have each made over £100k in sales through Trouva.com.

Trouva’s platform gives boutique owners the capability to offer customers real-time ‘click and collect’ with one-hour delivery options and worldwide shipping.

Singh continued: “We’re very proud to be celebrating our second birthday and these incredible growth figures.

“But the biggest accomplishment is to see the positive impact Trouva is having on the lives of boutique owners across the UK. We’re helping their businesses not to survive, but to thrive in today’s challenging and ever-evolving retail landscape.”

Trouva raised £2.5m of seed funding ahead of launch from investors including Octopus Ventures and Index Ventures, as well as angels from brands such as Jack Wills, Just Eat, eBay and Google.

Trouva’s leadership team has experience from the likes of Notonthehighstreet, Entrepreneur First and IBM. The business has seen 52 per cent year-on-year growth in headcount and the business now employs 38 people, including a 10-strong product team headed up by co-founder and CTO Alex Loizou.

This summer, the company scooped The Europas 2017 Hottest E-commerce/Retail startup award (beating competition from Deliveroo and Bloom & Wild), and is a member of Tech City UK’s prestigious Upscale programme.

Trouva is led by co-founders Mandeep Singh and Alex Loizou, and Glen Walker. It is one of the five fastest growing tech businesses in the UK (TNW Tech5), part of the Tech City UK’s prestigious Upscale programme and has featured in the likes of the 2016 Startup Awards and 2017 Drapers Digital Festival Awards.