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Youmanage, a provider of online toolkits for people managers, has just secured its first round of external funding, allowing the company to expand and develop new markets.
Funding has come from two “business angels”; David Burtenshaw and Ted Stanley, who will join the Board of Youmanage as Chairman and Non-exec Director respectively.
To date, Youmanage has been self-funding, but this investment will provide the necessary resources to strengthen and expand its sales, marketing and support activities. The company plans to recruit additional staff to accelerate its growth plans and to develop new market areas.
Grant Strelling, Youmanage’s founder and Sales Director is delighted with the investment; confident that it will enable the company to expand rapidly: He commented: “Youmanage is now an established online service which gives line managers all the tools, data and guidance that they need in one place. We have a great product and a strong customer base and are ready to move to the next stage.”
According to Youmanage’s Managing Director, Phil Brown, the investment was about more than just the money, explaining, “This funding not only gives us the resources to grow, but the expertise and involvement of two very experienced professionals, which will be invaluable as we move forward.”
Investor Ted Stanley recognised the opportunity for Youmanage based on his own experience as a member of Employment Tribunal panels. Ted believes that Youmanage is ideally placed to help businesses support their managers. He commented: “From my own experience, I know there is no other system which provides practical, online tools to help SMEs manage this area in a professional and cost effective way. Youmanage offers a fantastic range of applications that can be quickly introduced into a wide variety of businesses and then managed simply and easily from the front line.”
New Chairman David Burtenshaw was formerly CEO of Lynx Express, the UK parcel carrier acquired by UPS in 2005. David sees great potential in Youmanage. “There is a strong management team in place and we think the business is poised for rapid growth. We’re very pleased to be supporting Phil and Grant in this exciting venture.”
