22nd May 2014 13:08
LONDON (Alliance News) - Imperial Innovations Group PLC Thursday said its portfolio company JustYoyo has completed a GBP2.8 million seed investment round.
The investment round for the mobile payments and loyalty company was completing with a second tranche investment, with the first investment having been made in August 2013.
In a statement, Imperial Innovations said it invested just shy of GBP2.0 million in the round, with the balance made up by Firestartr and a number of angel investors.
"Funds from the round will be used primarily to increase the number of retailers using Yoyo in-store, with a focus initially on university campuses and high street chains. Yoyo also intends to expand its partnership programme with point of sale software vendors and leading catering companies," Imperial Innovations said in a statement.
Yoyo was founded in 2013 at Imperial Innovations by a team of entrepreneurs including Alain Falys, who founded OB10 Ltd, now owned by Tungsten Corporation PLC, Dave Nicholson, who co-founded peer-to-peer lending service Zopa, and Michael Rolph, previously of Paypal, Barclaycard and First Data.
Imperial Innovations says that JustYoyo has created an app that simplifies and speeds up in-store transactions by combining payment and loyalty into one scan, resulting in a better experience for retail customers.
The app was launched earlier this year and currently handles more than 30,000 transactions per month across 32 food and drink outlets at Imperial College London. Yoyo is also rolling out the app across the Westminster University campus and the University of Greenwich.
"Yoyo can be rolled out rapidly across university campuses, with the potential to expand rapidly from there into the wider market, and we are keen to support its experienced management team through the next steps of Yoyo's development," Jon Edington, director of technology ventures, Imperial Innovations, said in a statement.
Imperial Innovations shares were untraded Thursday. They were last quoted at 389.00 pence.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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