A longstanding North East digital agency is celebrating its 20th anniversary by launching an expansion drive after securing a substantial five-figure investment from the North East Small Loan Fund supported by The European Regional Development Fund.
Readysalted provides the full range of web development, user experience and digital transformation services for clients right around the world in a wide range of sectors.
The firm worked with regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers to secure the Small Loan Fund investment, which it is now using to maximise its presence in its home region, introduce a number of new services and undertake its biggest ever business development campaign.
Three new jobs are expected to be created this year, with more to follow as the business grows, and after increasing its turnover by 50 per cent last year, the management team is aiming to do the same again in the coming 12 months.
Headquartered in Newcastle, Readysalted already includes a number of household names among its client base, including Sage, Ladbrokes, and Durham, Newcastle and Cambridge Universities.
Founder Simon Honeywood, who set the business up soon after graduating from Northumbria University, says: “The tools we create and services we provide are all designed to help improve and transform their operations, and this is a road down which we’re now going ourselves.
“We’ve spent the last 18 months looking at the business’s future strategic direction, examining our service offering and processes, making enhancements where we saw the opportunity to do so and refocusing on our core development skills.
“We’re already working all over the world, but one of our prime goals now is to build our client base across the North East and show regional businesses how we can use our experience and expertise to transform their digital operations and so increase their productivity.
“Most of our work has come in via recommendation and word of mouth, and now want to increase our pipeline of new projects by focusing more dedicated resources on business development activity to clarify the breadth of expertise we can offer.
“We’ve recently picked up our biggest ever contract and feel confident that there’s a lot more to come.
“We developed a very positive relationship with the NEL team right from the off and their ideal investment model gave us precisely what we needed to supporting our expansion plans.”
Susan Snowdon, investment executive at NEL Fund Managers, added: “Simon and the Readysalted team have a huge range of commercial and technological experience to apply to executing their development plans and it’s exciting to be working with such an ambitious business.”
Part of the £120m North East Fund and aimed predominantly at smaller SMEs, the £9m North East Small Loan Fund typically offers loans of up to £100,000 to businesses in Tyne & Wear, Durham and Northumberland.
It is designed to assist with the creation of over 1,200 new regional jobs in more than 320 SMEs over the life of the fund.
The overarching £120m North East Fund will provide financial support for more than 600 businesses, creating around 2,500 jobs and delivering a legacy of up to £80m for further investment into the region.
NEL Fund Managers is also responsible for managing the £18m North East Growth Capital Fund, which offers unsecured investments of up to £500,000 to established businesses looking to realise their growth potential.
For more information about NEL’s investment criteria, visit www.nel.co.uk or contact the investment team on 0345 369 7007.
