Manchester AI marketing start-up Revnu raises £2.28 million seed round led by PXN

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Revnu, a Manchester company started by two 21-year-old childhood friends, George Jefferson and Art Freebrey, has raised £2.28 million, or $3m, in seed funding. NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance led the round. PXN Ventures manages it as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II. Y Combinator also backed the company.

The two met at secondary school and spent their student years building businesses together. These included software to automate the trading of rare vintage clothes and trainers, and an accounting tool for Vinted sellers, which together brought in about $15,000 a month. Monzo co-founder Jonas Templestein encouraged them to apply to Y Combinator, so they left university for Silicon Valley. Most of their customers are in San Francisco, and they then moved back to Manchester, which is one way to make the time difference part of the business plan.

Revnu's platform puts AI agents to work on LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram. The agents run campaigns, try out adverts, find leads and set up meetings, within budgets the owner sets. The company is also working on making businesses show up in answers from AI services such as ChatGPT. The money will go on hiring in Manchester, growing in the UK and US, and entering more countries. "San Francisco wasn't the place to build for us," Jefferson said.