Huddled says major investment, fulfilment upgrade come at "exactly the right time"

(Sharecast News) - Circular economy ecommerce group Huddled has entered into a new fulfilment and carrier service agreement with THG Ingenuity that will help accelerate growth plans, as it announced £1.5m of equity funding from investment firm Shard Capital.

The company, which specialises in sourcing and redistributing surplus goods, said that capacity constraints will be removed due to its deal with THG Ingenuity - namely its THG Fulfil warehousing, fulfilment and courier solution.

The agreement follows continued growth in Huddled's order numbers and revenues across the business in the second quarter.

THG Fulfil will allow Huddled to take orders up to 1am for same-day delivery - "a dream for any ecommerce retailer", according to Huddled chair Martin Higginson. The company said it expects this will also improve marketing conversion rates as well as customer satisfaction.

"This partnership represents a step-change in our ability to deliver circular economy solutions at scale. THG Ingenuity's fulfilment capabilities rival Amazon's - something we've aspired to since we started this business," Higginson said.

Huddled, which predicts no major change in warehousing, fulfilment or postage costs from its move to THG Ingenuity, and expects to be fully operational in the fourth quarter.

Separately, Shard Capital has approached the company about investing £1.5m at a price of 3.2p each - the closing price on Thursday. That's the equivalent of nearly 14% of Huddled's total market capitalisation.

While Huddled had previously said it does not need to raise new money, the company said "we are cognisant of the opportunities ahead of us".

"The approach from Shard Capital Partners LLP combined with the THG Ingenuity opportunity came at exactly the right time, allowing us not only to strengthen our balance sheet, but also enable the move to a world-class logistics service," the company said.