Apex Engage (t/a The Insights People) secures £500k Seed Investment from DSW Angels

The Insights People raises £500k from DSW Angels

The Insights People, the Manchester-based company which is a global leader in kids, parents and family market intelligence, has secured a £500k investment from DSW Angels, the business angel network focused on UK regional scale-up companies.

The investment will allow The Insights People to boost its international growth and follows its expansion into Brazil, Mexico and Canada in recent months. The company expects to create around eight new jobs in Manchester in the next six months.

The Insights People surveys 200,000 children and parents a year, providing clients with valuable insights into kids’ attitudes, behaviours, and consumption. Its award-winning market intelligence and portal enables users to tailor the results to their own requirements to inform their marketing strategy, identify market trends and evaluate return on investment.

Founded by Nick Richardson in 2017, it now serves clients across 11 countries including Amazon, F1, LEGO, Mattel, SEGA and Warner Bros.

The company has also appointed Stefan Lampinen as Chairman. Stefan’s career includes senior executive roles at Electronic Arts, NOKIA, Microsoft and Warner Bros – as well as being a member of Minecraft’s advisory board and the co-founder and chairman of the Swedish Games Industry Association.

Nick Richardson, CEO of The Insights People said: “We have achieved a lot in our first three years as a business, working with some of the leading global brands, building an incredible 30-plus strong team who continue to collaborate and innovate in a way which I have never witnessed before, and winning critical acclaim and coveted industry awards. The investment from DSW is an important next step to enable our further international expansion and to increase our investment in our research and technology-based teams in Manchester. I am also delighted to welcome Stefan to the team, whose experience will be of great benefit as we scale up our business on all fronts.”

The deal is the second completed since the start of lockdown by DSW Angels, the venture capital arm of Dow Schofield Watts. It recently indicated plans to invest £10 million of venture capital investment over the next 12 months to support post-Covid recovery in the UK regions.

David Smith, founding partner of DSW Angels said: “The world is changing fast and kids’ consumption patterns are changing with it. The Insights People helps companies to understand their attitudes and behaviour and engage successfully with the next generation of consumers.

“The business has shown great resilience during the lockdown with numerous new client wins and upsells. This was our fastest fundraise to date with all funds committed within the space of a day, which is testament to our investors’ confidence in the DSW Angels proposition and the quality of the business that Nick and the team have created.”

Sarah Walton and Anne-Marie Barnes of Weightmans LLP in Manchester provided legal advice to DSW Angels on the deal, while Stephen Chadwick of Beyond Corporate advised The Insights People.

ENDS

Notes to Editors 

About DSW Angels

DSW Angels made its first investment in 2018 and is an investor in early-stage scale-up businesses requiring venture funding between £250,000 and £1 million, primarily on an EIS basis. It is funded by a growing network of high-net-worth angel investors. DSW Angels LLP is part of the Dow Schofield Watts Group.

DSW Angels is a partner in British Business Investments’ £100m Regional Angels Programme, designed to help reduce regional imbalances in access to early stage equity finance for smaller businesses across the UK. British Business Investments is a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, the UK government’s economic development bank.

Dow Schofield Watts is a UK independent advisory and investment group, headquartered in Warrington, Cheshire and with offices in Manchester, Leeds, Aberdeen and London.

About The Insights People

The Insights People is the most comprehensive dynamic market intelligence resource on all thing’s kids, tweens, teens, and parents across the globe. The company currently surveys more than 4,000 children every week, across 5 continents and 11 countries, or more than 200,000 children a year, and has gained a reputation as the most comprehensive and dynamic market intelligence specialist in kids, tweens and teens; and whose market intelligence is used by companies such as the Amazon, Crayola, F1, LEGO, Ofcom, Pokemon, SEGA, Turner and Warner Bros.

Kids Insights Linkedin
Kids Insights Twitter

Manoj Ranaweera

Manoj has founded, failed and successfully exited from a number of technology product companies as well as support organisations since 2004. Among them, Northern Tech Awards and edocr.com were acquired by GP Bullhound and Accusoft, Inc respectively. Today, Manoj is building a trusted support network for technology companies. He is working with founding teams to help them accelerate including raising investment and M&A.

Related post

This will close in 25 seconds