Why Boomf, a company that puts your Instagram pics on marshmallows, raised $1M

Boomf, the personalized marshmallow producer, has attracted $1.05 million of investment from leading business angels in a deal valuing the firm at $15.1 million.

Boomf is a gifting company for the digital age. Boomf marshmallows was launched in November 2013 after founders Andy Bell and James Middleton discovered a mutual enthusiasm for software-enabled personalized gifts.

The company has now sold more than 1.4 million personalized marshmallows, all produced in the UK, and corporate clients include Topshop, Victoria’s Secret and Jack Wills. It has grown by 500% within the past 12 months with revenues running at £2.4m per annum.

Above: Boomf lets users upload photos via Instagram and Facebook. It also supports custom designs and text.

Image Credit: Boomf

The new funds will enable Boomf to expand its product range and pursue its vision of giving creative powers to its customers.

Boomf CEO, Andy Bell, said: “A gift is essentially a form of personal communication. In this context, it doesn’t make sense that most gifts are mass-produced. This investment enables Boomf to take a step further towards our ambition of creating the world’s most appealing personalized gifts and endowing our customers with creative super powers.”

The investment comes from business angels including Andy Phillips (founder of ActiveHotels and chairman at YPlan) and Jo Staveley (formerly managing director at Cath Kidston and L.K.Bennett). Other investors include Boomf’s chairman Nick Jenkins (from TV’s Dragon’s Den and former CEO of Moonpig) who has followed his previous investment in the company to maintain his stake as well as Duncan Jennings (founder of VoucherCodes) and David Frank (founder of RDF Media and TRX).

Boomf recently launched its second product, Buntella which is personalized bunting.

This story originally appeared on Tech City News. Copyright 2015