Still from ‘HeadBox Launch Video’. Image: HeadBox/YouTube
A UK start-up aimed at providing unique locations for office meetings and events has successfully raised £1.4m as its shareholder list expands.
Bringing its total raised funds to £2.6m, HeadBox’s latest £1.4m round is putting Hotels.com fingerprints all over UK business.
The HeadBox platform lets businesses rent out spaces such as lobbies, piano bars, galleries and rooftops to be used for corporate events. This allows businesses to monetise parts of their operations that have previously been underused.
HeadBox emerged out of its beta phase in 2016, bringing its platform to Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham after a successful London launch. 4,000 venues are currently listed on its site.
Andrew Needham, CEO of the company, said client retention is already apparent in HeadBox’s operations, with meetings, team away-days and product launches some of the preferred projects with companies that use his service.
“We aim for HeadBox to be the global go-to platform for bringing people and spaces together all in one place to make brilliant things happen,” he said.
“We want to change the way people think about space, unlocking people’s imagination to the different uses and applications of space, and what incredible things can be created, made, experienced and achieved within the right space.”
The latest investors include Johan Svanstrom, global president of Hotels.com, and Wild Blue Cohort, a network of angel investors. Existing investors in the business include Martin McCourt, former CEO of Dyson, and Andy Cosslett, who was previously CEO of InterContinental Hotels.
“HeadBox offers a fast, simple and innovative solution to an age-old problem of finding and booking unique spaces for work-related events,” said Svanstrom.
“It has the potential to be the leading online marketplace for creative and inspiring event spaces – both in the UK and internationally.
“I can see the platform has the ability to leverage a number of additional revenue streams to those it is already proving. It has extraordinary commercial potential.”
