VC-backed Shopa looks to wind down

According to sources close to the situation, the company was facing many problems including alleged management unrest.

Octopus and Notion invested $11m in Shopa in February this year, marking one of the largest series-A investments raised by a UK startup at the time.

Founded in 2012 by Peter Janes, London-headquartered Shopa allows users to create profiles and then customise personal product feeds to find products suited to their tastes. The platform then rewards users with discounts each time one of its users' friends buys a recommended product. The app also allows users to follow and like other users, brands and products.

At the time of the $11m investment, technology commentators pointed to the app's poor user experience, hoping that the sizable fresh funding would resolve these issues.

According to Luke Hakes, member of the ventures team at Octopus, who led the deal and took a seat on Shopa's board: "At Octopus we understand how hard it is to build a business and how the margin between success and failure is often very fine. We are pleased to have had the opportunity to work with a very talented and dedicated team. The business is going through a challenging period and we are working hard to explore all options available to the management team at this time."

Octopus is now looking for ways to exit the business.

Notion did not respond to requests for comment prior to publishing.

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• Topics
• UK / Ireland
• Venture
• Early-stage
• Octopus Investments