User Replay secures $4.7 million to accelerate growth
Reading, UK (PRWEB UK) 24 February 2016 -- User Replay, a developer of customer experience management (CEM) software in the cloud, has announced funding of $4.7 million secured from leading investors.
Major investors were Longwall Ventures and existing investors Episode 1 Ventures, EC1 Capital and FSE. The funding will be used to support their rapid expansion in the US market and increase the pace of product innovation.
With 76% of eCommerce brands in the UK and US planning to increase investment in online channels over the next 12 months, the CEM technology sector is rapidly growing. 89% of eCommerce professionals believe customer experience is a significant differentiator in their sector, according to The Online Customer Experience – Counting the Cost of Not Knowing a research study commissioned by User Replay.
User Replay is a cloud based or on-premise CEM software solution provider. It provides valuable and actionable insight into what eCommerce customers actually experience and helps to optimize the online channel by identifying, monetizing and fixing barriers to conversion.
User Replay is at the forefront of the CEM market and has a proven track record of helping its customers deliver a better online experience to consumers. Recent innovations include the ability to quantify the overall quality of experience on websites, thereby providing a real-time warning if customer experience degrades.
In addition to funding from leading investors, User Replay has secured over $350,000 from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency supported by the British Government.
John Thompson, CEO, UserReplay comments: “This latest round brings the total amount of funding raised by the company to date to over $10 million. Sales have grown rapidly since our last round of funding and our cash position was already strong, but we chose to raise further funds now to accelerate product development and to build on our growing presence in the US market. We expect 2016 to be a key year for the CEM space, and we now have the resources to properly exploit an exploding market.”
Michael Penington, Partner at Longwall Ventures, comments: “We chose to invest in User Replay for the potential it has to gain sizeable market share in a rapidly growing industry. CEM software within the eCommerce industry is set to grow exponentially, and User Replay is at the forefront in creating solutions that address real issues companies are experiencing.”
Adrian Lloyd, founding partner, Episode 1 Ventures, comments: “As a long standing investor in User Replay, this latest round of funding demonstrates our ongoing belief in the company, and reflects the progress they are making with innovative product developments and international expansion. As experienced investors in the eCommerce space, we recognize the long-term potential of User Replay and we are confident that they will continue to grow at a rapid pace.”
Julian Carter, founding partner and MD, EC1 Capital, comments: “With large eCommerce customers continuing to divert resources and budgets from customer acquisition to margin optimization, User Replay is ideally positioned to secure a leading share of the fast growing CEM market. We have backed John and his team since 2013, and are excited by the further boost to product innovation and US expansion that this funding will provide.”
Julie Silvester, head of equity, FSE, comments: “Our further commitment to User Replay comes following the success it has proven in increasing sales in the US and Europe. The expansion plans and business strategy it has in place will see it achieve further success within this fast growing industry.”
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About UserReplay
UserReplay's session replay technology lets users understand and analyze every visitor's journey through a website. For eCommerce companies this is invaluable as it enables them to improve conversion rates, find and fix site bugs, resolve customer disputes, recover abandoned baskets and prevent fraudulent transactions online.
Aimed at medium to large enterprises with e-commerce channels, UserReplay enables users to improve the quality of their websites, enhance customer's shopping experience, and reduce dramatically the time required to resolve any problems and disputes consumers may have while shopping.
Longwall Ventures
Longwall Ventures invests in innovative early stage, UK-based companies across the technology and health care sectors. It has a total of £70 million under management. Longwall is based at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories in Harwell in Oxfordshire.
Episode 1
Episode 1 Ventures is a software-only venture capital firm that invests £250k to £1m in early-stage, revenue-generating startups and plays an active and supportive role in turning them into growth businesses. With experience of startups from the inside, it provides frank and fast feedback to founders as well as strong entrepreneurial ‘know-how’ and a passion for building successful businesses.
With 20+ years of experience investing in software businesses, its partners have made early investments in some of the UK’s best-known success stories including Betfair, LoveFilm, Natural Motion, ScanSafe, Shazam, Shutl, Zoopla and Viagogo.
Founded in October 2013 and based in London, the firm is rapidly forming a portfolio of software businesses with enormous potential for growth. Its investments include CarWow, Cluster HQ, Raising IT, Scurri, SwiftShift, Touch Surgery, TripTease, TV Beat and User Replay.
For more information visit http://www.episode1.com
EC1 Capital
EC1 Capital is a London based technology fund focusing on disruptive and scalable web and mobile start-ups in the UK and Ireland.
EC1 Capital is an operator led fund investing across seed, pre series A and Series A participation investment rounds of up to £1m as well as providing domain specific advice to portfolio companies through its network of twenty professional technology advisors.
Co-founded in Feb 2012 by Julian Carter, EC1 Capital has made 20 investments to date including Kontainers, WeSwap, Cluster HQ, Seene, Truly Experiences, Twizoo, Hypaship and User Replay.
More information at http://www.ec1capital.com
FSE
The FSE Group provides tailored funding solutions and support for ambitious and innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to help them achieve their maximum potential. This includes the Thames Valley Berkshire Growth Fund, which is one of a number of Local Enterprise Partnership backed funds that The FSE Group manage. The FSE Group also provide a wide variety of fund management services, the management of business angel networks, mentoring and training for high growth SMEs. Most recently this has seen FSE provide funding and support to businesses and organisations in the social enterprise sector.
For further information about the range of products and services offered by FSE, visit http://www.thefsegroup.com
Media contacts
pr(at)userreplay.com
Helen Shafe, User Replay, http://www.userreplay.com, +44 1628569021, [email protected]
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