Chicago-based venture firm, Lightbank, founded by Groupon investors, Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, have backed Basket since the startup’s first raise. Famous exists from their portfolio include acquisitions by Google and TripAdvisor. To date, the start-up has raised £4.5 million in funding, including this latest round.

The stellar line up of investors also includes Dan Cobley (co-founder of Clearscore), Justine Roberts (Founder of Mumsnet), Rob Small (founder of Miniclip) and Harry Hugo (co-founder of The GOAT agency). This fresh injection of capital features the £250,000 prize awarded to Basket following a competitive pitch contest hosted by investors Crowdcude and Brewdog founder James Watt, earlier this year. When awarding Basket, James Watt dubbed the startup ‘the next UK unicorn’ set to disrupt the global online shopping space.

Angel investor, entrepreneur, and long-term backer, Jonathan Quinn, also joins the round after supporting Basket since early 2021. Jonathan has been an invaluable advisor from day one given his experience in establishing the international payments business, WorldFirst, which was acquired by Alibaba Group in 2019.

After launching the late last year, Basket has gone from strength to strength, with quick user adoption as the ‘ultimate shopping sidekick’. The app and Chrome extension platform just celebrated £65 million in savings for its users, who are adding 8.5 products to their wish lists every minute. Basket’s user engagement has reached 10x the average user retention for e-commerce apps, as it can used with thousands of retailers including the UK’s best-loved brands Adidas, Argos, Amazon, Curry’s, John Lewis and more. Basket will continue to build on its product suite for retailers, including crucial data on purchase intent from its growing 70K+ user base.

Recent strategic hires set to expedite growth include chief marketing officer, Lee Lythe, who brings a decade of experience and strong relationships with publishers and retailers. She will join from Publicis Groupe media agency, Spark Foundry (who secured £369m billings in 2022) with experience across clients M&S, Currys, ASDA, GSK and Mondelez. 

A first-of-its-kind in the UK market, Basket simplifies and organises the online shopping experience for consumers and retailers. In a couple of taps, shoppers can add products from any online retailer into one basket, categorise items into different wish lists, and receive automatic price drop and stock refill alerts.

Matt Sacks, Co-Managing Partner, Lightbank VC, said: “We only partner with talented teams that can move fast and scale quickly, and Basket is no exception. Basket’s world-class product, built by their exceptional and cherry-picked team, will capture the attention of shoppers across the globe and solve the biggest challenges faced by retailers. We are very excited to invest in the UK’s next unicorn, who are shaking up the online shopping experience.”

Lex Deak, CEO and Co-Founder, Basket, said: “Basket is the ultimate shopping sidekick for every online shopper. We’ve embedded ourselves into the online shopping experience to create a seamless and habitual journey for shoppers. The squeeze felt from the cost-of-living along with a cookieless future on the horizon, retailers will need to rely on the right technology to avoid a dip in personalisation, or access to critical purchase and behavioural data. Basket’s 10x average user retention numbers are no accident because we enable consumers to shop smarter, not harder.”