London, UK. 25 May, 2011 - Brightpearl today announces that it has secured an additional $5million in Series A funding from Notion Capital and Eden Ventures. The investment follows spectacular growth that includes tripling both its customer acquisition and monthly revenues in less than a year. The investment will enable the company to expand faster in the US and other markets and further develop its cloud-based solution for SMEs that includes accounting, CRM, inventory and ecommerce.

Since June 2010, Brightpearl has hired a new CEO, grown its business by more than three times and successfully launched in the US, where it is now adding customers at a rate that mirrors its success in the UK market. The company is planning to further build on this early success in the US market where it sees huge potential.

Salman Malik, CEO of Brightpearl, says: “The last year has seen explosive growth for Brightpearl as more and more businesses see the value in moving to our cloud-based solution. Our inbound leads have sky-rocketed to unprecedented levels. To accommodate this growth, we have moved to larger offices and expanded the number of datacentres running Brightpearl worldwide. We also have some major distribution deals in the pipeline so 2011 looks to be a pretty exciting year for the business.

The investment and support from both Notion Capital and Eden Ventures has really helped us to succeed in this fast moving market and we are really pleased to further extend our partnership in this way. The new round of funding is a great boost for us and really validates all the hard work that the team has put in.”

Chris Tottman, partner at Notion Capital comments: “We were very confident in our investment in Brightpearl from the start. It has a great product backed up by a very strong team. Brightpearl is a fantastic example of a British company succeeding and growing internationally, especially when you consider that the company is just four years old.

There is real momentum now to solidify its presence in the UK and expand further into new markets. We are really happy with the progress the Brightpearl team has made over the last year – the first steps on what I expect will be an incredibly successful journey.”

Charles Grimsdale, partner at Eden Ventures says: “Brightpearl is a fantastic product and the feedback from customers clearly shows that it is helping to transform business performance. The customer testimonials show that it provides uplift in revenue, and helps drive improved operational efficiency in many areas of the business, reducing cost and increasing profitability.”

Note to editors
Brightpearl, formerly known as Pearl, develops a leading end-to-end web based solution for SMEs that provides a fully integrated accounting, CRM, order and stock management, ecommerce and helpdesk capability. The Bristol-based British company was set up by Chris Tanner, serial entrepreneur, in 2007. Pearl is a privately owned business, funded by Eden Ventures and Notion Capital. Brightpearl’s board members include proven entrepreneurs and industry experts such as Doug Richard and Salman Malik. For further information please visit: www.brightpearl.com

Eden Ventures invests in technology companies in the telecommunications software, enterprise software, SaaS, digital media, e-commerce, Internet, social media and mobile sectors in Europe. As serial entrepreneurs, Eden’s partners bring the highest levels of expertise in building early stage technology companies. In addition Eden brings a strong investment track record, offering potential for high returns in this exciting sector. Eden adds significant sales and marketing, organizational and financial focus and capabilities to the existing inherent technology value of its portfolio members. For more information, please visit www.edenventures.co.uk.

Notion Capital is a venture fund and advisory business that invests in growth businesses in the IT sector, with a particular focus on Internet based services with recurring revenue models. Notion Capital creates value by helping companies and management teams to accelerate growth through financial injection combined with strategic and operational participation. The partners are all proven entrepreneurs and line executives, having founded and built a number of highly successful IT businesses. For more information please visit: www.notioncapital.com

For more information, please contact:

Simon Matthews or Rebecca Gregory
Speed Communications
Email: simon.matthews@speedcommunications.com / rebecca.gregory@speedcommunications.com
Telephone: 020 7842 3200