Bodmin-based hotel software firm, Caterbook, has secured £100k of equity investment from the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF), as part of a larger £200k funding round. The round was led by The FSE Group, the appointed fund manager for CIOSIF.
The investment will help the business expand its sales and marketing functions to accelerate growth. Over the next three years, six new jobs will be created within the company to strengthen the sales and customer support teams. The business will also seek to appoint a chief operating officer.
The business has already benefitted from a £150k loan made through CIOSIF, which helped it to complete the R&D stage and early roll-out of the software. This debt deal was handled by SWIG Finance, which works with The FSE Group to deliver the small business loans part of CIOSIF.
Caterbook was founded in 2005 by Chris and Sally Noon, both of whom have significant experience within the hospitality industry. Having had to use multiple, often non-integrated systems within the sector, they embarked on creating a single, all-encompassing solution for hotels and other accommodation providers.
The resulting cloud-based property management service (PMS) is an innovative piece of software that is able to automate or simplify many of the repetitive tasks that hotels face daily. The system provides accurate data and statistics whilst saving time and money by reducing errors. It also links to many EPOS systems and booking platforms enabling Caterbook users to get everything they need from a single system.
Co-founder Chris Noon said: “Since March last year, the UK hospitality sector has certainly been hit hard. During the pandemic, we have kept in touch with and retained our customer base and now the restrictions have started to lift, we are really looking forward to the summer season. This latest investment will enable us to strengthen our team and to grow the business further.”
