Lancaster-based charge point management platform, Fuuse, is one of Lancashire’s fastest growing companies.
Its system allows a wide range of customers to manage electric vehicle charge points which includes setting charging times, user restrictions, managing payments and choosing different pricing tariffs. The product is also available through a white label service and the company’s customers include utility providers, tourist destinations and organisations with charging facilities at their workplace.
The company, which now employs around 85 staff, won an Innovate UK grant in 2020 to support its development, and has since taken three lots of equity investment. As part of its ongoing growth, Fuuse also acquired EV driver support service Everyday UK earlier this month.
Fuuse CEO Michael Gibson shared his scaleup insights with Two Zero including the company’s journey, the value of external investment and strategy advice for other Lancashire scaleups.
Our product costs a lot of money to develop so we explored ideas which initially allowed us to generate revenue. This included undertaking consultancy work and creating simple software applications to help reduce costs and improve efficiencies for companies in the transport and logistics sector.
Our big break came when we were accepted onto an electric vehicle-focused Innovate UK programme in 2020 which gave us access to grant funding and this helped us to build Fuuse to close to being commercially ready. The money was spent on developing our charge management platform to prove our model and power our partners in the consortium. We subsequently launched in 2021.
We needed funds to invest in our growth, including expanding our sales and customer support operations, accelerating the platform’s product development roadmap and expanding geographically.
We initially set out to raise £500,000 in pre-seed funding but succeeded in raising £1.7m investment in 2022 from Scottish-based venture capital firm Par Equity and a group of angel investors, which was followed by £2.2m follow-on seed round from the same group of investors. One of the key things we learned at this stage is people buy people - investors want to know that a business and its leaders have the skills required to create a rapidly scaling business.
In 2024, we then gained our third equity investment, a £8.7m Series A round led by investor YFM, with support from our existing investors. That’s moved us from being a startup to a true scaleup and our goal is now to ensure that this growth in revenue continues in a sustained and consistent way.
Being a CEO of a scaling business is a lonely place and it’s important to take advice from people who have been there already. We’ve participated in accelerator programmes such as Tech Nation’s Net Zero and Upscale programmes which have previously supported companies like Monzo, Deliveroo and Just Eat, which has helped us with mentoring and new insights.
It’s also important to build your own network of people who might be able to offer new perspectives or ideas. Working with FHunded, Lancashire County Council’s investment ecosystem, helped to connect us to YFM.
Inspiration and new perspectives can also come from less conventional places. I recently saw a YouTube video with the Airbnb CEO who was talking about the importance of always keeping your eyes open for opportunities.
Scaling is fundamentally about people with clear roles, accountabilities, and targets, and it’s crucial to have a strong management team to rely on. In tech, there are a number of key roles including Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Technical Officer and Chief Operating Officer and having a clear understanding of how those roles work for your business and having the best people in those positions is key.
As a leader, making sure you are getting advice from all parts of your team is important. We now have two Non-Executive Directors, and our investors are also able to share their experiences of scaling a business.
In addition, it’s important to invest in your team and help upskill them, including giving them the opportunity to visit conferences and other events which will increase their knowledge.
As a business, we have achieved 300% growth for the last two years and maintaining rapid expansion will be our focus. We want to strengthen our position as the leader in the UK and Irish market, and in time, elsewhere in the world.
Make sure you swim in a blue sea, if you can’t differentiate your product you will struggle. There will also be bad times and then it’s not about how hard you fall but how high you bounce.
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