Shutl, the web service that connects retailers with local same-day courier companies, has secured £650,000 in funding led by Hummingbird Ventures and a major European postal group (which wishes to remain anonymous at this stage). Shutl will be using the investment to build a sales team, expand its in-house software development team and explore international opportunities.

“Shutl has a disruptive proposition that is loved by customers and operates within the rapidly growing ecommerce market,” comments Barend Van Den Brande, managing partner at Hummingbird Ventures. “These fundamentals alone are very attractive to an investor but now we also have a partner capable of truly accelerating its market potential.”

Shutl was formed by veteran entrepreneur Tom Allason (pictured), who was previously founder of eCourier.co.uk. Founded in late 2008, it was initially bootstrapped by its founder with just £50,000, which was later matched by the rest of the team. It received £500,000 from a group of investors led by Simon Murdoch and Big Bang Ventures in October 2009 and £400,000 follow-on from these investors in August 2010.

“I am particularly excited at the prospect of collaborating with a strategic investor that already has local infrastructure and retailer customers across Europe.” comments Allason. “We were in discussion with a number of VCs when we were approached by this party however felt that no traditional investor could bring as much to the table. We still expect to look for series A funding towards the end of 2011, however we now have enough runway to launch with several additional UK multi-channel retailers and to begin exploring the market right across Europe.”

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