If you were watching Dragons’ Den on the BBC last night you may have seen Adam Ewart, the young founder of the Belfast start-up SendmyBag, making his pitch to potential investors – to no avail. Today, however, angel investment firm Lough Shore Investments announced it has made a “significant” seed investment in the start-up.
The financial terms of the investment have not been disclosed but it is believed to be in the region of the figure discussed on Dragons’ Den – stg£100,000.
SendmyBag.com was founded by 27-year-old Ewart in 2010 as a door-to-door luggage transportation service to deliver people’s bags to their destinations. The service can be booked online and arranged within 24 hours.
In terms of air travel, the idea is that SendmyBag will help people travel luggage-free, especially in light of baggage-handling charges.
According to Lough Shore Investments, the seed investment deal will help SendmyBag fund its expansion into key international markets and further develop its technology among suppliers.
Danny Moore, principal and founder of the Belfast-based seed and early stage investment firm, said Lough Shore saw the potential in SendmyBag from the outset.
“As an investment, SendmyBag is fantastic opportunity in that it is an exceptionally disruptive service and technology that focuses on an ever-growing pain-point for travellers the world over. It can often be difficult to measure the market for any start-up but in this case the numbers speak for themselves – in the US alone last year the fees around excess and checked luggage topped the US$3bn mark and is expected to grow further this year,” said Moore.
Ewart said SendmyBag had been growing as a service primarily aimed at the student market. However, he pointed to how the company now has a much larger opportunity as consumers respond to increased charges for airline baggage.
“With the support of Lough Shore Investments we plan to make SendmyBag a compelling international proposition,” he added.
