Gresham House Ventures backs retail app firm Proximity Insight
Gresham House Ventures has invested £5 million into retail tech firm Proximity Insight.
Proximity Insight was co-founded by Salesforce experts, Kris Moyse, and Matt Lacey, and is led by CEO and Co-founder, Cathy McCabe, previously VP of Customer & Payments at luxury fashion house Burberry and CIO at British fashion brand Jaeger.
Using the venture’s app, retail teams can get to know each customer through their profile, displaying their preferences, trends, and purchase history.
They can then use the solution’s functionality to communicate, serve, and transact with customers from a single tool.
Proximity Insight is pitched as “the only retail solution of its kind natively built on top of the Salesforce platform, augmenting the benefit of Salesforce products, while also integrating smoothly with all other leading CRM and commerce software solutions”.
The £5 million deal, which is part of a £5.5 million investment round alongside existing individual backers, is the company’s first from an institutional investor.
Its customer base includes more than 20 brands across 25 countries in North America, Europe and Asia and spans the fashion, beauty, jewellery, electronics, and homeware sectors.
Brands onboard include Selfridges, John Lewis, David Jones, Rodd & Gunn, Orlebar Brown and Lafayette 148.
The funding will be used to expand Proximity Insght’s sales and marketing team, build a significant presence in North America and further develop its SaaS product.
Joe Krancki, Investment Director at Gresham House Ventures, says: “Despite the enthusiasm surrounding e-commerce, the after-effects of the pandemic have clearly shown us that stores still have a vital role to play.”
“It is important, however, that they make use of digital technologies to meet the demands of the modern day consumer.”
“The fact that retailers are increasingly making technology innovation a strategic priority coupled with a strong endorsement from Salesforce, means PI is well positioned to build on its early global growth.”
“Cathy is an exceptionally strong and experienced leader, and we look forward to supporting her and the PI team through the next stage of growth and beyond.”
McCabe adds: “From the outset, it was clear Gresham House Ventures shared our belief in the critical role technology will play in supporting the new era of retail, in which digitalisation will enrich customers’ in-store and online shopping experiences.”
“The team’s combined expertise and proven trackrecord in scaling software specialists will be fundamental to unlocking our next phase of growth, as we look to meet growing demand from retailers - and customers - for digitally enabled omni-channel capability”
“Gresham House Ventures’ confidence in our vision and value proposition is a huge testament to our product and team and we are excited about bringing our partnership to life.”
