Successful Northern Ireland tech startup growing - Business Works
BW brief

Successful Northern Ireland tech startup growing

Adam Ewart and Danny Moore, SendmyBag Northern Ireland tech start-up SendmyBag offers an online door-to-door baggage service. The company is the brainchild of Adam Ewart who identified a gap in the market for providing simple and affordable baggage transportation services that could be booked online and arranged within 24 hours. The service is ideal for students, business travellers, golfers, skiers, those on gap years, travelling the world, or relocating to a new country.

The company recently appeared on BBC TV’s entrepreneur show, Dragons' Den where its requests for funding were rejected by the panel of vociferous 'dragons'. However, it has just secured significant funding in order to invest in future growth. The new seed funding will allow Sendmybag to grow internationally and launch in new markets. The growth is a reaction to consumer dissatisfaction with increased baggage handling charges when flying and frustration with the inconvenience of strict rules regarding hand luggage in terms of weight and size.

The funding has been provided by Belfast-based Lough Shore Investments, which specialises in investing in high-potential management teams from next generation start-ups. The company concentrates, where possible, on partnering with companies based in Northern Ireland and Ireland, particularly those who are operating in the web, mobile and enterprise space. In addition, Lough Shore’s founder and managing partner Danny Moore will be joining the board of SendmyBag as a non-executive director.

"SendmyBag has been growing steadily for the past few years as a service heavily adopted by students and their parents, as they travel to university and receive care packages from home," said Founder of SendmyBag, Adam Ewart. "However, a much larger opportunity has presented itself as consumers respond to increased charges for airline baggage by flocking to us at an unprecedented rate, ensuring we are poised to lead this new travel revolution."

I am now capitalising on the success of the business, reinvesting profits and using the funding from Lough Shore to make Sendmybag a compelling international proposition. Our aim is to put the joy back into travel and remove the financial and psychological stress from the experience, whether we are dealing with leisure fliers, travel operators, business travellers or students."

"With his impressive track record in company growth and execution, Danny, who successfully spearheaded Wombat Financial Software and managed its sale to NYSE Euronext for $246 million, will be an invaluable asset to our company, as we grow internationally and bring on board new staff."

"Although my appearance on Dragons’ Den was a real eye opener and a great experience, I feel better placed taking investment from a reputable firm such as Lough Shore that has the infrastructure, expertise and contacts to help grow my business into a global success."

Principal and founder of Lough Shore Investments Danny Moore, adds, "It has been an exciting time for SendmyBag and we are delighted to have played a small part in it. From the outset, we saw the tremendous potential in both Adam and SendmyBag – it is a potential the Dragons obviously missed and something I think they will soon come to regret. Adam is one of the finest young entrepreneurs I have ever had the pleasure to work with and will, I have no doubt, soon stand alongside some of Northern Ireland's leading entrepreneurs. We are delighted that he and SendmyBag are now a part of the Lough Shore family.

"As an investment, Sendmybag is fantastic opportunity in that it is an exceptionally disruptive service and technology that focuses on an ever-growing pain-point for travellers the world over. It can often be difficult to measure the market for any start-up, but in this case the numbers speak for themselves. In the US alone last year, the fees around excess and checked luggage topped the $3 billion mark and are expected to grow further this year. Add to that Michael O’Leary’s plans to operate a 'hand-luggage only' service in the near future and the opportunity here is clear."



For further information, please visit: www.sendmybag.com



Tweet article
BW on TwitterBW RSS feed