Online marketplace OnBuy to launch globally following £5m investment

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jul 9, 2020

OnBuy, the UK-based online marketplace, is set to accelerate its global plans after raising £5 million through a series A funding round.

140 new territories, including the US, Germany, France, Spain and the UAE, are in the expansion programme of the e-tail startup, which aims to rival Amazon with a “fairer and more transparent platform”.

OnBuy credited the support of leading consumer goods companies such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever for its strong and quick growth. Sales rose by 1,100% in the past year and the business expects revenues to reach over £2 billion by 2024. To accommodate this rapid growth, OnBuy has tripled its workforce to over 50 full-time staff.

CEO Cas Paton said: "The injection of this additional funding not only allows us to substantially grow the operational side of the business, but it gives the OnBuy team backing from phenomenal investors who can bring an array of e-commerce experience and expertise to the table, bolstering an already strong globalisation strategy.

"2020 is a coming-of-age era for OnBuy, where we've seen some of the world's largest brands and retailers come on board. By having products from the leading household names available, including Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Kimberly-Clark, we are driving better competition which feeds into better pricing for consumers across a huge variety of products.

"We are well on track to claim 3-5% of the £84bn UK e-commerce market in the next three years, and we're aiming for 1% of the $3.46 trillion global e-commerce market, equating to $35bn, in the next five years.”

The Series A funding was raised from leading London-based VC firm Fuel Ventures and other experienced investors including Nathalie Gaveau, the co-founder of Priceminister, a premium French marketplace later acquired by Rakuten.

OnBuy has experienced explosive growth since its launch in November 2016. The platform has currently over eight million customers and more than 25 million products, with monthly visitors now trending at over four million along with over 400 retailers joining every month.