Fashion Site Atterley Road Attracts Former Tesco Chief As It Raises £2 Million

Former Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy is among a number of new investors to contribute a total of £2 million in new funds to fashion aggregator AtterleyRoad.com.

Other new investors include The William Currie Group, an early investor in Asos, former Best Buy Europe executive Bob Willett and fund manager Artemis. Leahy and Liverpool-based William Currie Group are also joint investors in etailer Occa Home.

Atterley Road was launched in early August 2012 as a 'virtual high street' for brands such as Whistles, Day Birger Et Mikkelsen and Jigsaw, where co-founder Katie Starmer-Smith used to work as a buyer for eight years.

She is daughter-in-law to former England international rugby player, later BBC rugby commentator, after marrying his son Charlie.  

The new funding will be used to grow sales in the UK and overseas as well as to drive the growth of the Atterley Road own-label range.

Atterley Road: £2 Million Funding

Co-founder Edward David said of the new investors: 'Their proven experience in retail and ecommerce will be critical to the development of the brand over the next few years, and to have them as investors is a testament to what Atterley Road has achieved since its launch.'

The company said it has seen substantial growth since generating over £2 million gross sales in its first 12 months. It currently attracts 200,000 visits each month and sells in over 100 countries and says Australia and the US are 'key' destinations.

William Currie chairman Bill Currie said: 'The team at Atterley Road have built a fantastic brand with great growth potential in a very short period of time. They have the right foundations in place to build a great e-commerce business and we are looking forward to working with them to achieve that.'

Match Capital advised Atterley Road, a tech fundraising adviser.