OnBuy.com may now be the world’s fastest-growing marketplace.

But it was a Dorset Business Angels’ investment which helped fuel the Poole-based company.

Four times a year companies are invited to attend an event – currently online – when they pitch their business to the savvy angels in a similar scenario to TV’s hit show, Dragon’s Den.

The aim is to bring investors and entrepreneurs together to accelerate the growth of early stage businesses.

Angel investment can come from a single investor or two or three angels pooling funds together to support a company.

Two years ago an impressive pitch to Dorset Business Angels by Cas Paton, OnBuy’s Founder and CEO, captured the attention of investor Mark Entwistle.

He liked what he heard.

So much so that the opportunity was subsequently referred to fellow Angel investors at the Surrey Investors’ Club.

It led to a team of investors, headed up by Mark, carrying out due diligence and investing a total of £125,000 as part of the last seed round before OnBuy’s £5m Series A in June 2020.

Mark, pictured left, was joined in his investment by Gary Kyle and Michael Penny.

And now?

OnBuy, which offers competitive prices on millions of products, celebrated a landmark year in 2020.

The company, bolstered by the success of its wide-scale Q4 marketing campaign, achieved its third consecutive year of more than 600 per cent growth.

Annual sales were over £170m, £2.5m in sales on Black Friday alone.

This month – January – is seeing year-on-year growth of more than 800 per cent.

It beat the entire month of January 2020’s sales in the first three days of January 2021.

Monthly users are trending at just under 7m.

Cas, who founded OnBuy in 2016, said: “Thanks to organisations like Dorset Business Angels, OnBuy is quickly becoming a household name in the UK.

“The investment and support from Mark Entwistle and the other Angel investors has helped us to quickly take advantage of a global opportunity.

“We have made immense headway in achieving our mission to revolutionise the eCommerce sector.

“OnBuy is about to commence a global scale-up and that will see us expand from the UK to over 140 countries.

“Some countries feature significantly larger eCommerce markets than the UK, so we’re going to skyrocket in terms of growth this year.

“I’m grateful to the Angels for their support – we wouldn’t be thriving as we are now without it.”

Mark said: “Part of OnBuy’s success thus far is that they’re really not competing with their sellers, so they’re not selling their own products.

“I think this has been a key driver in the growth that they’ve achieved so far.

“The innovative operational tools that OnBuy have already built and harnessed within their system will enable them to grow efficiently in the future.

“I am delighted that Dorset Business Angels and the wider Angels network has been, and continues to be, a part of their journey.”

• The next Dorset Business Angels online pitch is on Monday February 1. To find out more about Dorset Business Angels, or to book for the pitch event, please visit dorsetbusinessangels.co.uk.