Funding boost for graduate job matching venture
GC Angels, the angel investment arm of the Growth Company, has supported Manchester-based Gradtouch with a funding boost of £150,000 to expand their innovative graduate job matching business.
This latest round of funding takes the total investment in GradTouch to £1.2m and is set to double the size of its Northern Quarter-based team to 32, taking the company to a projected £1.6m turnover next year and £3.2m in 2020.
Launched in 2013 by founders Zac Williams and Joe Twigg, GradTouch is a job matching business that enables employers to attract the best graduate talent.
A hybrid of an advertising agency and job site, GradTouch features employer landing pages, in-depth reporting, candidate management and feedback from job seekers.
GradTouch has grown significantly in the past three years and now works with more than 200 employers to promote and distribute their career opportunities to its network of in excess of 200,000 graduates registered with the site in the UK.
With around 50,000 vacancies available on the site at any time, Gradtouch will be using the latest round of funding to double the size of their team, with key target hires of people who are highly expert in the recruitment and graduate sectors.
The most recent equity investment loan will be used to build out the GradTouch offering overseas, developing new projects in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
GradTouch co-founder Zac Williams said: “We know that students today graduate with skills and talents far beyond their degree grade and that employers are looking past CVs and much more at getting the right kind of talent for their business.
“Using the funding from GC Angels and our other investors over the past two years we have been able to build GradTouch into a unique business that develops a real cultural fit between companies and candidiates.
“We’re looking forward to being able to invest in some of the best recruitment professionals to take our offer even wider and to reach ever more graduates and talent hungry employers.”
Darrren Gowling, senior investment director at GC Angels, said: “GradTouch is a great example of the type of innovative and growth-focused tech business that GC Angels was designed to support.
“Having worked with Zac and Joe since their first funding round we’re now supporting them with equity from both our own fund alongside other investors, including Maven and Fig (First Investment Group)to ensure that they continue to put Manchester on the map with a business that really is changing the world of work.”
GC Angels supports businesses seeking access to angel investment, ranging from £25,000 up to £2m and forms part of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s response to supporting the early stage investment market.
GC Angels is also able to leverage the range of wider Growth Company Services for clients including GC business finance and business support services. GC Angels provides an innovative, single solution equity funding service.
