£3m investment will fund expansion into 12 UK and European cities

Robin Kaneteg and Joel Halling

Manchester-based lead generation specialist ROI has secured a £3m investment from BGF to support its expansion into 12 cities across the UK and Europe.

ROI allows small businesses to rent a highly-optimised website which attracts more leads and ultimately boosts sales for these companies.

Its innovative proposition has had success in the home improvement and maintenance sector and is scaleable across different geographies and sectors.

Founded by 24-year-old entrepreneurs Robin Kaneteg and Joel Halling in 2018, the business is based in Manchester and has proven its model in Sweden, growing to annual revenues in excess of £1m sales in less than two years.

Chief executive Robin Kaneteg said: “We’ve developed a genuinely innovative approach to an established market which is delivering results for our customers.

“With BGF’s backing we can accelerate the roll-out of ROI into new territories and sectors to achieve significant growth.

“We initiated a funding process at the start of the year and BGF quickly emerged as the best partner for our business. The majority of the deal process has been completed in lockdown – the focus and drive of everyone involved has maintained momentum throughout.”

Miss Group chief executive, Mattias Kaneteg, is a non-executive director of ROI and made the introduction to BGF.

This follows BGF’s successful exit of its investment in Miss Group, the Manchester-based web hosting venture, earlier this year.

The exit delivered an exceptional return for shareholders and IRR of more than 100%.

Last week, Miss Group was announced as the fastest-growing business at the GP Bullhound Northern Tech Awards 2020.

Joel Halling, sales director at ROI, said: “We have put together a detailed plan for the opening of sales offices in 12 major cities in the UK and across Europe to grow our customer base.

“With our solution, for example, an electrician in Manchester can rank high on web searches by renting an optimised website and generating potential customers exclusively for their business.

“We have already experienced outstanding growth as our customers have seen success in generating quality leads from working with ROI.

“With the investment from BGF, we will continue to invest in our product development and improve the service we offer to our customers as we continue our growth across Europe.”

Pinesh Mehta, investor at BGF who will be joining the board of ROI, said: “ROI is an exciting young business driven by a highly-capable team with an impressive board.

“With plans for future growth already well developed, we look forward to working with the team as they open offices across the UK and Europe.

“BGF has completed a number of new and follow-on investments in recent weeks. As companies emerge from the current lockdown, we believe that equity investment has a key part to play in the recovery.”

Phil Male will join the ROI board as non-executive chair as a result of an initial introduction from BGF’s Talent Network, which is the UK’s largest pool of non-executive directors.

He has been involved in developing internet, media and telecoms services in the UK for more than 25 years.

The deal was led for BGF by Pinesh Mehta and Rhys Davenport.

The advisors to the transaction were: For BGF, Knights (Adrian Rogers, Ryan Tweedale and Wendy Catterall); for ROI, Squire Patton Boggs (Giles Chesher, Matt Canipa and Matthew Flanagan).

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