The white-label pocket concierge service GuestU (guestu.com) is today announcing a $1.1m seed funding round led by European VC Portugal Ventures.  GuestU will use the funding to invest in its product development and increase its customer base globally, having already signed 200 paying customers in 14 countries in the space of a few months.

GuestU raises $1.1M seed funding to grow its white-label pocket concierge service

Launched early this year by experienced travel entrepreneur Euclides Major, GuestU develops mobile apps for iOS and Android platforms with personalisation algorithms so hotels, guesthouses, short term rentals and hostels can create and customise their own concierge service, becoming more engaged with their guests and improving their experience in-destination, while also generating more revenue.

GuestU facilitates the process of app building through the provision of fully customisable apps with tailored, original content created by a team of editors and journalists. Customers can then manage the app without GuestU’s help, but still have easy access to a user-friendly support team. With 90% of tourists in the U.S. and Europe bringing their own devices, a pocket mobile concierge service is in high demand.

GuestU has already signed highly reputable hotels and apartment holidays across Europe, including The Taj in London, Queens Gate Hotel and Feels Like Home apartment rentals.

Euclides Major, founder of GuestU, said: “We wanted to create an app that would combine the personal experience of a hotelier concierge service with world-class cloud-based technology, and make it as simple for the customer as managing your facebook page; we believe GuestU does just that. Our recent funding will further grow the business, bringing our service to more hospitality businesses across Europe.”

Major continued “Our goal is to become the number one supplier of mobile technology and pocket concierge services to the hospitality trade in Europe and USA, and I am confident that our easy, quick and sophisticated platform combined with our strong team will get us there and beyond.”launches the app with brand information and premium touristic content, and then passes the reins to the customer, who can easily manage and update the app as they see fit. 

Adzuna launches 1.5m crowdfunding campaign to get Britain working

Adzuna.co.uk, the fastest-growing job search engine in Europe, is inviting members of the public and angel investors to join its mission to get Britain working, by investing in Adzuna. The company has today announced plans to raise at least £1.5m via Crowdcube, the UK's leading equity crowdfunding platform, with a minimum investment of just £13.

With the aim to make finding work easier, Adzuna already attracts 6 million visits a month, offers job search in 10 international markets and has helped hundreds of thousands of people find jobs. In 2012, Adzuna was also asked by Number 10 to supply labour market data to the Prime Minister's Data Dashboard, and earlier this year was selected for the Government's Future Fifty programme for high growth businesses.

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, explained: "Having already attracted first class institutional investors in previous funding rounds, we want to offer our users and the wider public the opportunity to be part of our journey. Our mission is to match people to better, more fulfilling jobs and keep Britain working and we are passionate about achieving it."

Capital raised from the campaign will be used to invest in Adzuna's technology, building on a market-leading search and machine-learning platform that brings together over 1 million UK job ads in one place, and adds smart search options and powerful data about the job market.

Doug Monro, co-founder of Adzuna, commented: "We are proud of the world-class team and platform we have built at Adzuna, but we still have a long way to go in job search innovation, mobile apps and internationalisation. Our existing tools, like Jobsworth, which predicts the salary for every job ad, and ValueMyCV, which allows users to find out what they're worth, are just the beginning. We want to make job search better for everyone, from Adelaide to Warsaw."

With an existing presence in the UK, Australia, Germany, France, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, India, Russia, The Netherlands and Poland, Adzuna plans to consolidate and grow user services in its global markets.

New shareholders will be investing alongside existing investors like Passion Capital and The Accelerator Group, as well as influential angels like Sherry Coutu CBE and Klaus Nyengaard who have already committed to the round.

Luke Lang, co-founder of Crowdcube, commented: "Giving people the opportunity to invest in a tech startup backed by Index Ventures, one of Europe's top venture capital firms, The Accelerator Group and Passion Capital through Crowdcube is an exciting prospect. Adzuna's mission to keep Britain working resonates immensely with Crowdcube. Our platform has already created thousands of new technology jobs in Britain and we support Adzuna's wish to create many more through this campaign!"

You can see the Adzuna pitch here www.crowdcube.com/adzuna. Please remember that investments of this nature carry risks to your capital as well as potential rewards, so you should read the full pitch and associated risk warning to ensure you #InvestAware.

Investment Opens Up the World for AngloINFO

Formed on the French Riviera, and headquartered in Oxfordshire, AngloINFO is a franchise business which operates over 90 regional websites in more than 40 countries, covering six continents. Through its sites the company provides information, support and a community to a huge population of English-speaking expats. 

AngloINFO receives several million unique visitors each month, with expats using their local site to source information on everything from property, schools, local customs and laws through to jobs, healthcare and financial matters. The company sends out over 1 million newsletters each week to subscribers. Its growing role within such a large, affluent, international community has already attracted over 400,000 local, English-speaking businesses which promote their products and services on its sites. It also has a raft of major global advertisers including HSBC, BNP Paribas, Bupa and Interflora.

It is this combination of local focus and global reach which appeals to the venture capital firm, Elderstreet Investments, as William Horlick, Fund Manager explains:

"We provide early stage and development capital for UK growing businesses and for us AngloINFO ticks all the boxes. The senior team has a clear vision and exciting plans for the future. The business taps into and supports a valuable market which lots of international businesses want to target, and while it's already a solid business with a strong track-record, there's plenty of scope for growth."

The investment from Elderstreet will fund AngloINFO's expansion and a major new technology which it is rolling out from June. This mobile-enabled platform includes a major new content management and payment system. Through this AngoINFO will be able to create new revenue streams from its 600,000 registered members and attract a host of new users and content.  The new technology will also enable it to offer members special offers and deals from third party organisations keen to reach out to the affluent global community of expat professionals. AngloINFO will be able to give users more exclusive, tailored content and the technology will provide scope for expats to interact even more with their local site.

James Jackson, chief operating officer of AngloINFO elaborates:

"Being useful to the international expat community and helping expats to connect with each other are at the heart of everything we do. The investment will help us do this even more. It will help ensure that the experience and support we offer to our members is better than ever. This will further boost our already strong user base and will support us as we move into new territories too. So this investment is good news for our featured businesses, global advertisers and franchisees - it's an exciting time for us all."

The investment will also support the company's expansion plans. It has at least 5 new regions it plans to develop over the next year James Jackson adds:

"Expats are an incredibly important community and with increasing levels of international mobility that community is growing. No one reaches them like we do. With sites in more than 40 countries, we're already a critical support to that community's life, but there are plenty of territories that we want to move into. Whatever the stage of expat life - or wherever the destination - our mission is to be there for the world's English speaking expats. This investment will help us deliver this vision."