Event tech company Akkroo to expand operations with £1.75m funding round

Akkroo, the Brixton-based event lead capture company, has closed a £1.75m funding round led by Conviction Investment Partners (CIP), with participation from previous private investors.

Formally launched in 2013 as a spin-out from RMP Enterprise, Akkroo enables sales and marketing teams to transform the way they capture, process and evaluate leads from exhibiting at events.

The company already has a global customer base, including the likes of IBM, Sony, Getinge AB and PayPal.

Akkroo plans use the £1.75m fund to increase its marketing activities and significantly expand its US operations.

The company works by providing a ‘horizontal’ solution, aimed specifically at the organisations exhibiting at events, rather than the event organisers themselves. Akkroo allows event marketers to create custom-built, fully branded data-gathering tools that function across iOS and Android mobile devices and tablets.

With Akkroo-enabled devices, event teams on the trade show floor can obtain GDPR-compliant data from new leads in real-time, including business card transcription functionality and badge scanner integrations.

The solution integrates with all major CRM and Marketing Automation platforms, allowing users to instantly transfer event qualified leads into existing sales and marketing workflows.

Akkroo was co-founded by Chris Wickson, an entrepreneur who had previously co-founded RMP Enterprise, a company which creates digital and face-to-face solutions for businesses looking to attract graduate talent.

Whilst growing RMP, and exhibiting at hundreds of student career fairs, Wickson began work on a mobile app to capture and accurately process the thousands of students he and his team had met.

Enterprises, such as IBM, were soon asking to licence the tool, and Akkroo was formally launched in 2013 as a platform available to new customers.

Since then, Akkroo has more than doubled annual recurring revenue in the past two years and recently moved to new headquarters in Brixton, south London.

Chris Wickson, co-founder and CEO of Akkroo, said: “This funding comes at a time of significant growth for Akkroo as we expand and develop our product in this emerging space, and seize the vast opportunities in both the European and US markets.

’‘There is a huge disconnect between the manual, outdated activities that are used for lead capture when regularly exhibiting and an organisation’s existing, often sophisticated, sales and marketing systems.

“Businesses have long struggled with how to capture and process leads at events efficiently, follow up with those leads in a timely manner and ultimately evaluate the true ROI of exhibiting. What’s more, GDPR means that data collected and processed from events in a responsible manner is more important than ever.

“Akkroo is at the forefront of bridging this disconnect, solving a significant challenge that impacts sales and marketing teams all over the world. Our solution not only enables teams to win more business from events but also provides intelligence that ensures they’re exhibiting at the right events, at the right time.”

This new funding round has been led by Conviction Investment Partners, an international syndicate of experienced HNWIs and Family offices that co-invest opportunistically in high growth, early stage tech businesses.

Andrew Jenkins, co-founder of Conviction Investment Partners, commented: “Since our initial investment in Akkroo a year ago we have witnessed it grow at impressive organic rates.

“As we learnt more about the market opportunity and implications of the new GDPR legislation we decided to elevate Akkroo to our Conviction portfolio company and become their lead financiers.

“The company is a true pioneer, solving a very real problem for businesses across the world. It has a significant opportunity to become the clear leader in this emerging space with very little competition, and we look forward to working with Chris and his team to support Akkroo’s rapid growth.”

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