ROI secures £3m investment from BGF

ROI secures investment from BGF

Phil Male join the business as non-executive chair

2020-06-03 ROI has secured a £3m investment from BGF, the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing businesses, to support its expansion into 12 cities across the UK and Europe.

ROI is a lead generation technology company which allows small businesses to rent a highly optimised website which attracts more leads and ultimately boosts sales for these companies. ROI’s 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 headquartered in Manchester and has proven its model in Sweden, growing to annual revenues in excess of £1m sales in less than two years.

Robin Kaneteg, co-founder and CEO of ROI 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 CEO, 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 earlier this year. This week, Miss Group was announced as the fastest-growing business at the GP Bullhound Northern Tech Awards 2020. Phil Male’s appointment is the result of an initial introduction from BGF's Talent Network, which is the UK's largest pool of non-executive directors.

Joel Halling, co-founder and sales director at ROI added:“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 six deals in the past eight weeks. As companies emerge from the current lockdown, we believe that equity investment has a key part to play in the recovery.”

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

The advisors to the transaction were:

For BGF: Knights plc (Adrian Rogers, Ryan Tweedale and Wendy Catterall)

For ROI: Squire Patton Boggs (Giles Chesher, Matt Canipa and Matthew Flanagan)

About BGF:

• BGF was set up in 2011 and has invested more than £2.2bn in over 330 companies, making it the most active investor in the UK.
• BGF is a minority, non-controlling equity partner with a patient outlook on investments, based on shared long-term goals with the management teams it backs.
• BGF invests in growing businesses in the UK and Ireland through its network of 16 offices.
• In 2018, Canada launched its equivalent – the Canadian Business Growth Fund – based on BGF’s funding model, and Australia launches the Australian Business Growth Fund in 2020.