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According to its chief executive officer, Michael Dwyer, the company is set to obtain the investment in around a month's time. The funding, said Dwyer, will be a mix of trade and private investment, as well as venture capital. He declined to say who exactly would be investing in the business.
The money will be used to increase the company's marketing spend, fund increased employee numbers, and technology developments, said Dwyer. A small proportion will also be spent on looking at the feasibility of launching its business model in Britain. Pigsback.com intends to launch its service in Northern Ireland in October.
Pigsback.com currently has close to 70,000 members who can download from the site money-off vouchers from brands such as Paddy Power and Bewleys. While users accumulate "PiggyPoints" from reading certain offers or by shopping on-line at the site's store, their details can then be used by companies for marketing reasons.
The company is also planning to bring the concept to supermarket shoppers. It has developed a prototype terminal that will allow Pigsback.com members to print out in-store the coupons available to them. New members will also be able to sign up for the service via the terminals. Dwyer said he would hope to have the terminals in three or four supermarkets on a trial basis by September.
Dwyer said the company's immediate target was to grow user numbers from 70,000 to 125,000 by the end of the year. "We are fully confident we can achieve that because we are currently signing up in the region of 1,200 new members a week," remarked Dwyer.
The company is set to celebrate its first anniversary in July and it expects revenues for 2001 to be around IEP1 million. According to Dwyer, it is on target for profitability by Q1, 2002.
Pigsback.com has scooped a number of awards recently. Among these was the "Best New Irish Company" at the Checkout Awards 2001, which reward companies involved in the grocery trade. Neilsen//NetRatings also rated the site as the "stickiest" Irish Web site. According to figures released earlier this month, Irish consumers, are, on average, spending 26 minutes on the site. It ranks second in Ireland only to the Microsoft site, msn.com.
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