Circularity Capital LLP, the specialist private equity firm supporting growth stage European SMEs in the circular economy, continues to build its portfolio, leading a multi-million pound growth funding round in ZigZag Global, a British software solution for retailers to optimally manage the return, consolidation, and resale of products both domestically and internationally. The investment was also backed by US Silicon Valley investor Plug And Play Ventures.

Circularity Capital’s investment will further accelerate the rollout of the solution to bluechip retailers. Clients include Topshop, Selfridges and GAP amongst others.

E-commerce return volumes are growing at 10-20% per annum. In the US market alone, 2.5 million tons of returned goods end up in landfill, the equivalent of the volume of waste produced by 5 million Americans.

ZigZag’s multi-award winning SaaS platform enables retailers to reduce the costs and waste associated with returns whilst dramatically improving and simplifying the customer returns experience and speeding up the time to refund. ZigZag grades returned products and can consolidate, refurbish, locally redistribute, recycle or even resell stock internationally.

The system reduces parcel journeys by up to 65% by identifying opportunities for the repacking and redistribution of returned products within the country of delivery, resulting in a measurable reduction in the wastage and carbon footprint associated with retail returns. ZigZag also reduces the cost and transit time of returns and has been proven to reduce customer related service enquiries by 40%.

Circularity Capital’s investment in ZigZag is consistent with its hands-on approach of backing businesses capturing new sources of value through circular business practices. Circularity Capital’s investment will see it play a key role in supporting the management team accelerate its international roll out plan. Ian Nolan, partner at Circularity Capital, has joined the ZigZag Board.

Ian Nolan, Partner at Circularity Capital, said:

“ZigZag has developed a powerful solution for retailers to addressing the growing challenge posed by e-commerce returns. Our investment in ZigZag is highly aligned with Circularity’s focus on using the circular economy to identify opportunities to drive financial value creation in parallel with positive environmental and societal impact.”

Al Gerrie, CEO and founder of ZigZag, commented:

“Circularity Capital’s investment will play a key role in fueling our market growth. In addition to allowing us to reach more customers, the funding will allow us to further develop our product offering to deliver even more value for retailers. We placed significant emphasis on bringing on board an investor who brings more than just capital to the table – Circularity Capital’s specialist network and insight in the circular economy was a great fit for us in this regard“.

ZigZag is also nominated for the People’s Choice award at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.

Source: Company website