Spoke secures £5m new investment for further international growth

Custom-fit menswear brand Spoke has announced the completion of a £5m crowd-funding round on the Seedrs platform to grow its international footprint, particularly in the US.

The round was supplemented by existing investors, led by Oxford Capital, with participation also from Forward Partners, BGF and 24 Haymarket.

The money raised will be used to invest in the Spoke team, technology and marketing, with approximately 30% of revenues for FY22 expected to be generated from international markets.

The US is Spoke’s second largest market after the UK and is currently growing at over 100% per annum. Spoke will invest in a dedicated US team, to be London based, with the aim of more than quadrupling US revenues by FY24.

Spoke has also just opened a distribution centre in Germany. The site will be used to hand finish all items for local distribution, and service more efficiently its growing business across Continental Europe.

Benefitting from the changing world of work post pandemic, Spoke is currently trading ahead of target for the full year, with year-on-year gross revenues currently up over 60% on 2021’s £17m.

Spoke Founder and CEO, Ben Farren, said: “We are experiencing an exhilarating post pandemic recovery, with growth of more than 60% year-on year, as work and going out trends normalise.

“The monies raised will enable us to accelerate our progress in our international markets of Europe and the US. The time is now right to invest in the US in particularly, where we’re more than doubling year on year, and the economics of our American customers are incredibly strong. We are aiming to quadruple sales in the country by 2024.”

David Mott, Founding Partner at Oxford Capital, commented: “At Oxford Capital we are passionate about backing founders and we’re thrilled to see the progress that Ben and the team have made in growing the Spoke brand.

“The company has successfully managed the changing needs of consumers - growth over the last year and projections for the year ahead are really promising.”

Clement Bigot, Senior Investment Manager at Seedrs, said: “The success of Spoke’s crowdfunding campaign was testament to the product and community they have built since their launch in 2014. With over 1,500 investors, the campaign was the most successful campaign on the Seedrs platform so far in 2022.”

In 2021, Spoke became one of the first companies to secure investment from ITV AdVentures, a new venture set-up by ITV to provide TV advertising in return for an equity stake.

Specialising in legwear, each pair of Spoke trousers, shorts or jeans is hand-finished to order in over 400 size options, covering leg length, waist and build. There is even tapering options for calves.

Spoke’s proprietary ‘Fit Finder’ machine learning technology can match a customer to their perfect size in just sixty seconds.

Additionally, the company avoids the issue of carrying excess stock by finishing all orders by hand in its Yorkshire based workshop, though the company’s HQ is in Richmond, Surrey. The result is “a custom made fit, without going to the time or expense of bespoke”.

Applying the same obsession on fit to the upper body, Spoke has expanded its offering to T-shirts, polos and shirts.

The company has earned a reputation for exceptional customer service, scoring 4.7 out of 5 on review site Trustpilot from over 2,000 reviews. Spoke also previously ranked 12th in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 survey of the UK’s fastest growing private companies.