BGF has completed a multi-million pound follow-on investment into Evoke Creative, following significant contract wins and international growth.
Evoke provides transformative digital solutions for retail and hospitality businesses. It delivers engaging digital experiences with kiosks, signage and electronic point of sale (EPOS) for clients such as McDonald’s, JD Sports, Bibliotheca and Google.
BGF invested £6 million into Evoke in November 2018 and this latest investment will allow the business to build on recent growth. This year, Evoke has driven significant international expansion, securing contracts with two US multi-national restaurant brands, representing nearly 70,000 restaurants across the globe. The rapid roll-outs to such brands allows Evoke’s customers to benefit from significant revenue boost and cost-savings.
Evoke has also signed a three-year contract with an international hotel brand, worth £5.6 million, demonstrating the business’ ability to deliver end-to-end specialist solutions, blending kiosk hardware, customer facing software and enterprise integration with sector-leading service levels.
Peter Edwards, CEO at Evoke Creative said:
“We’re delighted to announce today’s investment from BGF as its team continues to back our long-term growth strategy. We’ve had a standout year and are on course to deliver a 35% uplift in sales for our current financial year, with huge potential for future growth. The investment will allow us to continue to invest in our technology and increase kiosk outputs to meet demand.”
Evoke co-founder Neil Clark is taking this opportunity to step away from his role, but remains a shareholder, and fellow co-founder Dean Ward will continue in his role as CPO.
Neil Clark, Co-Founder of Evoke Creative, added:
“I’m leaving the business in the very capable hands of CEO Peter Edwards and a very strong management team. It’s been an amazing journey since Dean and I started the business 15 years ago, and I’ve met some wonderful clients and suppliers on the way, so I’ll be sad to leave everyone. Evoke has an exciting future ahead and I wish everyone, particularly Dean, all the best for the next phase of growth.”
Ian Plumb has also been named non-executive chair (NXC) at Evoke. This appointment was supported via BGF’s Talent Network – one of the largest groups of board-level non-executives in the UK and Ireland.
BGF investor, Rhys Davenport, added:
“Evoke has secured a series of impressive customer contracts this year in terms of value, scale and the calibre of brands they are supporting. We look forward to working with the team as they continue to build on this in the next chapter.”