Online shopping website Notonthehighstreet.com, which prides itself on selling unusual and original products from more than 1,600 small creative businesses across the UK, has won funding of £7.5m.
Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish, who founded the site in 2006, will invest the money, third-round funding led by Index Ventures, with Greylock Partners, into improving the shopping experience that the site offers.
The team will grow while improvements to the website and underlying technology will be put in place.
“We are delighted to have such experienced and successful internet investors as Index Ventures and Greylock join Venrex and SPARK as shareholders,” said Tucker, who is executive chairman of the company.
“With their support we will strive to offer our customers the very best personalised online shopping experience and support our small business partners every step of the way.”
Ben Holmes, partner at Index, will join the board. He said: “Consumers are increasingly looking for unique and personalised items which are ever harder to find in today’s retail market. Holly and Sophie and their dedicated and passionate team have succeeded where many others have failed in using the internet to transform the way small businesses can find customers and transact online.”
When Notonthehighstreet.com started out in 2006 it sourced its goods from network of 95 small businesses. Now it has more than 1,600 partners who sell more than 35,000 products between them.
Laurel Bowden, Partner at Greylock Partners, added: “Notonthehighstreet.com is one of the most innovative and original e-commerce businesses to come out of the UK with the future capability to support thousands of small businesses in Britain and abroad.”
