Digital postage company secures £600,000 funding

A digital postage company has secured £600,000 following an oversubscribed funding campaign, as it moves towards a commercial launch.

Stamp Free offers a phone-based alternative to traditional mailing and returns.

The Ratho-based business raised the funds at a pre-investment valuation of £4m – double the £2m valuation at its seed funding round in September.

Investment was led by existing investors R42 Group and Cambridge Angels, along with other technology angel investors from the UK, US and Australia. The proceeds will be used to increase sales and marketing activities to ramp up commercial traction and for further product development.

Hugh Craigie Halkett, managing director at Stamp Free, said: “This investment signifies a further endorsement of the Stamp Free solution, which is poised to disrupt the postal and logistics industry.

“We’ve made excellent progress since our last funding round, commencing trials with postal carriers, retailers and locker providers around the world, and this new raise will accelerate our development.”

Stamp Free is now trialling its postal technique with carriers, retailers and locker providers in different geographic locations around the world.

The free postal solution is expected to be made available for consumers later this year. It aims to let businesses and consumers use the Stamp Free or white-labelled app to send parcels and letters, as well as return consumer goods, without the need for a postage stamp or carrier label.

It uses handwriting recognition technology to eliminate issues associated with postal stamp fraud, liabilities and the cost of printing.

The machine scans handwritten six or eight-digit codes – essentially handwritten barcodes – which are scanned and validated by artificial intelligence at the source by a smartphone, before the mail item is sent or returned.

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