Digital marketing company Leaf is poised for growth and job creation on the back of a £1.75m investment package.
The Newcastle based firm, which provides performance marketing services for fast-growing ecommerce businesses, has secured the funding with help from Maven Capital Partners.
Leaf has secured £1m through the North East Development Fund, supported by the European Regional Development, and £750,000 from The Future Fund, a Government scheme backed by the British Business Bank.
The funding will trigger investment in Leaf’s engineering and data science teams, sales and marketing activities and also see it expand its Newcastle operations, while also continuing to roll out a number of product enhancements.
Leaf, which was founded in 2014, helps ecommerce businesses looking to scale revenue growth from paid social, using its team of software engineers, data scientists and marketing strategists to serve up return on ad spend for clients.
The Leaf Grow platform enables the company’s marketing engineers to enhance Facebook audience targeting and optimisation.
The business already boasts a client list of blue chip names and businesses including the likes of GoCompare, Footasylum, Mastercard and Bibado.
CEO Gilbert Corrales said: “Leaf has grown significantly in the last two years with very little capital investment.
“The whole team is excited about what we will achieve with the additional backing from investors and we are really pleased to welcome Maven as part of this round. It is an exciting time for us, and we are experiencing very strong commercial traction from clients all over the globe.”
Mr Corrales, who has more than 15 years of experience in software engineering working for New Futuro, Intel and AvVenta Worldwide, said the global online advertising market is expected to reach $982bn by 2025 and Leaf is well placed to capitalise on this forecasted growth.
Peter Smith, investment associate at Maven, said: “The social ad space is constantly evolving, and organisations must remain dynamic to ensure more than ever that they are engaging customers and creating bespoke experiences to satisfy those customers.
"Leaf is helping businesses cost-effectively acquire and retain high-value customers in what is an increasingly competitive environment. Gilbert has built an impressive business and we are delighted to support the business as it enters an exciting new phase of growth.”
