App developer raises £250,000 in VC backing to focus on R&D and growth
Hull-based no-code app developer, February, has raised £250,000 in venture capital funding only a year into trading.
February, which allows businesses to build their own apps to a template design without using code, will use the seed funding from SFC Capital to invest in research and development and operational and customer growth.
The venture was launched last year by Ash Lewis, CEO, with his brother Tom, who is COO.
Ash Lewis, 26, said: “We started February after identifying a distinct gap in the UK market for a no-code app developer and that the route to that market was quickly achievable with the skills and team we had and were able to pull together.
“Since 2020 when we started development on our software that can quickly generate native apps in multiple languages from a visual interface we’ve had a goal that can be summarised in one sentence ‘anyone can build a modern, powerful app, without any coding or design knowledge’.
“App launches can just chew up time, money and hours in their development, but what we started to realise was that about 90-95% of the code used in app development was all pretty much the same or very similar standard logic with only 5-10% as unique business logic.
“Building an app, such as a dating app, sounds like a large and complicated task, but with no-code everything from user-interface, user onboarding, user management, reporting management, banning and deleting users, even app promotion can be very simple and straightforward.”
He added the company has attracted venture capital backers, partly because there is so much interest in no-code software development.
The brothers, who both grew up and went to school in Hull before going into tech, previously worked on another of their successful tech businesses for about six years, which they realised as a trade asset sale two years ago.
They are now looking forward to the latest stage of their tech adventure, and plan more research and development, team building and product honing.
The brothers are also using February’s simple route to app creation by developing their own inhouse apps.
This includes ‘Duos’, an app which allows people to find a friend to play games with; and ‘Audid’, an audio app due to launch imminently providing 15-minute book summaries.
Tom Lewis, 21, said: “If we have a good idea for an app – we create it. We’re keen to grow these inhouse apps, and it’s very much a case of ‘let’s get it done.'”
