The two female tech entrepreneurs who have developed e-Bate, UK’s first software as a service (SaaS) platform to help companies manage rebate and pricing schemes, have just secured slightly over €1 million from Mercia Asset Management and from private investors.
Leanne Bonner-Cooke MBE and Colette Wyatt, the two founders behind the Leicester-based startup, will use the fresh capital to expand their sales and marketing activities and roll out e-Bate to a wider audience.
Leanne is also founder and Chairman of Evolve-IT Consulting, which develops bespoke software. She has won a wide range of business awards and was made an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List in 2017 for her services to women in business. Colette, who has 30 years’ experience within the telecoms and IT industries, joined Evolve in 2015 as Chief Technology Officer and has spearheaded the development of e-Bate.
Through their work in building bespoke rebate management software for large companies, they recognised that there was a gap in the market for an affordable off-the-shelf solution. e-Bate was founded in 2018 and is designed for buyers or suppliers which either pay or receive rebates, commissions, bonuses or incentive schemes, in particular those in the pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, consumer goods and construction industries.
The e-Bate platform allows companies to overcome the complexities involved in managing such schemes by automating the process, helping to reduce overheads, manage pricing and increase revenues and profit while ensuring compliance through a full audit trail and comprehensive approval workflows.
Leanne Bonner-Cooke stated: “Many large corporations have rebate deals between themselves and their suppliers, and on both sides a lot of money is left on the table as rebates are not effectively accounted for or claimed due to poor rebate management. e-Bate solves this problem. These funds will allow us to further commercialise the product and build our team while we continue to develop new features.”
Sandy Reid, Investment Manager at Mercia commented: “e-Bate is an exciting product with a huge potential market and a founder team of exceptional quality. It is also great to see women in tech coming forward for funding and we hope this will encourage others to do so, to help us break barriers and change the landscape once and for all.”
Mercia Asset Management invested through the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, which is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.
