Barclays extends £1.5m finance facility to Blippar
Barclays bank has extended its partnership with image recognition and mobile augmented reality platform Blippar with a £1.5m finance facility earmarked for further expansion of the mobile app.
London-based Blippar has risen to prominence with consumers by allowing brand logos for firms such as Coca Cola, Pizza Hut, Maybelline, Pepsi and Heinz to be scanned to unlock interactive digital content.
Co-founder and CEO of Blippar, Ambarish Mitra, commented: “As we work with big brands, development and payment cycles can be long, so we have to function like a much bigger business. In reality, we are still a relatively small company and have all the same pain-points as an SME. Knowing the financial support is there to manage money going in and out of the business gives us increased confidence in working with global industry-leading organisations.”
Juliet Rogan, relationship director, Barclays’ Technology, Media and Telecoms team, said: “Blippar’s growth has been quite remarkable. To become an industry leader in such a short space of time is testament to the founders’ ability to identify a world-changing idea and execute a business strategy, which quickly captured the attention of major brands like Coca-Cola and Samsung.
“Barclays recent Fast Growth Tech survey showed that 19% of UK tech businesses saw managing cash flow as the biggest financial challenge they faced in 2015. Therefore, we believe it is important for major lenders to help the sector overcome these concerns and support companies like Blippar realise its exciting and ambitious growth plans.”
Blippar will utilise the cash to develop its intellectual property and recruit additional staff to grow the business.