Enthuse raises £3.5m to fuel international expansion and product development
Enthuse, the donations, fundraising and events platform, today announced it has secured £3.5m investment in its Series A funding round led by Praetura Ventures, the venture capital fund that targets early-stage businesses in high-growth sectors. Co-investors included a consortium of existing investors to the business. This brings the total funding raised by Enthuse to £7.5m.
Enthuse provides charity-branded donation, fundraising and event management tools to more than 4,000 charities, and has helped them raise more than £100m to date. It supports 1 in 5 of the UK’s largest charities, including Macmillan Cancer Support, NSPCC, WWF, Save the Children.
On average, the UK donates around £10.1bn to charity each year, and reports suggest there’s been an uplift in donations during the Covid-19 pandemic. From January to June 2020, charity donations in the UK totalled £5.4bn – £800m more than for the same period in 2019, according to research from UK Giving.
Through a range of white-labelled, fully customisable tools and platform technology, Enthuse helps charities improve their brand recall, build and nurture a loyal supporter base, raise more funds and ultimately have more impact. Products include branded payment and communication solutions, virtual fundraising tools, data management and event registration software, as well as a corporate platform for employee engagement.
This investment will allow Enthuse to develop and extend its product offering, as well as expand its offering into new international markets, and double the size of its team from 50 to 100 strong employees.
The investment funding round was led by Praetura Ventures’ investment manager Sim Singh-Landa and director Guy Weaver. Sim Singh-Landa will join the Enthuse board as a non-executive director and David Foreman, managing director of Praetura Ventures, will join as an observer.
Chester Mojay-Sinclare, founder and CEO of Enthuse, said: “From day one we have been committed to transforming digital fundraising by putting charities first. Our products put charities front and centre to enable them to raise more for their cause. This investment will play a crucial part in our journey to be the number one for charity fundraising in the UK and beyond, by helping us to rapidly scale our team and roll out new products to help the third sector.
“Similar to the shift from retail to ecommerce, the pandemic has accelerated the move to digital fundraising. We’re looking forward to being able to help more charities transition to digital through this investment.
The team at Praetura Ventures is well known for going above and beyond the capital they invest to truly help their portfolio businesses flourish. It’s great to have them on board as we look to significantly expand our fundraising ecosystem.”
Sim Singh-Landa, investment manager at Praetura Ventures, added: “We’ve been really impressed with the ambition and expertise of the management team at Enthuse. The team has a clear strategy and growth plan, and a real focus on helping charities better connect with their supporters.
“The business is well positioned to scale, and with our support will continue to attract leading talent and deliver exceptional customer service to a growing pool of the UK’s biggest charities. Enthuse has been able to evidence the incremental value its product can achieve for a charity, driving fundraising efforts and increasing the value of donations. We are confident the business will go from strength-to-strength. It’s great to back a business which has such a positive impact on communities, and is making a huge difference to people’s lives.”
Praetura Ventures has invested from its EIS Growth Fund. This deal follows investments in tech-for-good platforms Transreport and Culture Shift, and Leeds-based RapidSpike.
Irwin Mitchell provided legal advice to Praetura Ventures.
Ashurst provided legal advice to Enthuse.
