UK tech startup Sticky, which enables retailers to transform more of their physical space into points of sale, has secured £1.5 million in seed funding from prominent UK investors. The investment round was led by Praetura Ventures, (which invested in Coadjute and Seatfrog), with backing from Cornerstone VC and follow-on funding from SFC Capital and new angel investors.
The fresh funds will enable Sticky to become the de facto solution for leisure and retail businesses, helping them increase revenue across their physical locations without increasing spend. Also, Sticky will use the investment to continue to build its strong partner ecosystem, which has already given the company customers in charity, fitness, access to work, and live events. It will also enable the company accelerate customer growth across leisure and retail markets worldwide.
Priscilla Israel, co-founder and COO of Sticky, said, “Sticky offers a no-code low-code solution that helps businesses innovate at speed. We help our customers see their physical space as an asset and as a way to make more money. The future of physical spaces is well debated but at Sticky there is no debate about their future or value – they are where we all live and work.”
James Garner, co-founder and CEO at Sticky, added: “Our seed funding will help us reach more leisure and retail businesses and help the world build software for physical spaces 10x quicker than before. We won’t stop until every interaction in a physical space can be 10 seconds or less.”
David Foreman, managing partner at Praetura Ventures, said, “Sticky has taken a visionary approach to the problem of unused retail space and online engagement in offline environments, and that is what attracted us to invest in the business. Given the growing tech expertise we have at Praetura, including our operational partners and Praetura Ventures partner Andy Barrow, who was the former CTO at cloud giant ANS, we are looking forward to joining Sticky’s growth journey and playing our part in helping the company scale and break into new industries and verticals.”
Rodney Appiah, Managing Partner at Cornerstone VC, said: “Sticky’s innovative platform brings the rich functionality and customer experience of low-code platforms to physical spaces. Its remote configurability, ease of use and reliability in low connectivity environments lowers the barriers to digital adoption for a range of businesses and provides a versatile toolkit to drive customer engagement, retention and revenue. We’re delighted to support James and Priscilla on this journey and look forward to working with them both and the other investors in this round as the business scales.”
Stephen Page, CEO at SFC Capital, added: “The team’s exceptional resilience during the pandemic when we first invested highlights their strong dedication and commitment to innovation in the face of adversity. It’s a privilege to back our winners.”
Faster customer interactions via NFT stickers
Founded by James Garner and Priscilla Israel in 2020 in Manchester, Sticky’s mission is to make every physical-digital interaction truly transactional. Sticky customers use creative branded stickers – ‘stickies’, which house NFC-based technology.
The no-code low-code self-service platform is already used and trusted by large customers in the leisure sector. The stickies can be placed anywhere within customer sites, stores, the home, and other physical spaces to increase efficiency and let customers get things done quickly. The company’s operating system lets its customers create flows, (solutions to problems in physical spaces) in minutes. Every flow takes a consumer 10 seconds or less.
Sticky’s solution bridges the current online-offline divide and makes physical spaces engaging and profitable. It is used up-sell and cross-sell without the friction associated with conventional in-store technology.
Using stickies a shop could be shut and still take a payment through the window, redefining the commercial possibilities of window shopping. Every sticky is also unique, meaning businesses can track performance and return on investment more accurately and consumers never have to choose a location, store, table or collection point.
Already, 35 businesses, including well-known brands suchi as Byron Burger and Epic Games have signed up with Sticky.
