Northern Gritstone leads £5M Series A round into aftersales technology platform company Partful
10 December, 2024 — Northern Gritstone, the investment company focused on science and technology businesses in the North of England and chaired by Lord Jim O’Neill, has announced a £5 million Series A round into Manchester-based manufacturing aftersales technology solution provider, Partful, alongside co-investors Par Equity and US-based Blumberg Capital.
The investment will support the automation of Partful’s 3D SaaS platform and accelerate the company’s growth within the $640bn aftermarket sector.
The platform gives users access to interactive 3D models that explode to reveal each product’s individual components – making it easier for the customers and dealers of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to identify and order the components they need and access the work instructions needed to fit them.
The ability to self-serve means that users can upload their data – CAD files, Bill of Materials as well as their own tribal knowledge – to create a parts catalog for aftersales purposes. As well as making it even easier for OEMs to create interactive documents, automation also saves significant amounts of time. The enhanced platform makes it possible to create a 3D parts catalog in hours, rather than weeks.
The business already counts Maeving, Lear, Kolpak, Triangle Tube & Ideal Heating and Allett Mowers among its customer base.
“Northern Gritstone is delighted to support Partful. This growing Manchester-based tech company has already won large OEM customers thanks to its technology and is set to create more jobs in its North of England team”
Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone
‘‘Part identification is the first step in finding the right parts. When teams don’t have the right tools and information, it can result in multiple back-and-forth emails and calls which is time-consuming, frustrating and often ends up with the wrong parts being ordered.‘‘Developing the next iteration of our platform is an important step in helping OEMs to overcome these challenges. Having the backing of Northern Gritstone, Par Equity and Blumberg Capital is vital in developing the next iteration of our platform and we are thrilled to have their support as we help the industry eradicate costly order errors, limit product downtime and maximise revenues.’’
Sam Burgess, CEO and co-founder of Partful
“We’re passionate about backing innovative businesses capable of transforming entire industries — and Partful is a perfect example. Manchester is a key hub for innovation and an area where Par Equity continues to expand its presence, so we’re thrilled to partner once again with Northern Gritstone to support this Manchester-based business. Having initially invested in 2021, with a follow-on in 2023, we remain committed to backing Partful as they continue to lead the way in aftersales technology. With the launch of Partful 2.0, we’re excited to see its growing impact across the market in years to come.”
Tom Croy, Investment Director at Par Equity
“After sales is a multi-billion dollar global marketplace experiencing a digital evolution and we believe Partful is at the forefront of that transition,” said Stanton Green, sr. director at Blumberg Capital. “The Partful team has delivered real business value to OEMs. Our continued support emphasises the tremendous expansion opportunities ahead, especially in the US which is core to our goal of broader international adoption and innovation.”
Stanton Green, Senior Director at Blumberg Capital
About Northern Gritstone
Northern Gritstone is an investment company, dedicated to supporting ambitious science and technology businesses in the North of England. Its philosophy is ‘profit with purpose’ combining strong returns for investors with wider positive, societal and economic impact, including high-skilled job creation and Levelling Up. Chaired by Lord Jim O’Neill, the company has made 29 investments in some of the UK’s most exciting future businesses.
Together with NG Innovation Services, Northern Gritstone offers ‘Capital+++’ connecting early-stage founders with funding and expertise through its close links to industry-leading partners and its founding universities of Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.
For more information, please go to: https://northern-gritstone.com/
About Partful
Partful is a web-based fully interactive automatic 3D exploded parts catalogue and work instructions software. Where 2D alternatives strain aftersales, engineers and technical documentation teams to quickly create accurate parts catalogues and work instructions for ever changing products, Partful’s 3D model creation is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Partful’s automatic 3D model creation, configuration management, and e-commerce use existing CAD data to create intuitive and accessible catalogues and instructions for factory floors, dealer networks and customers. Saving your internal team’s hours on emails, calls, and part order fulfilment.
The platform is helping global OEMs, such as Lotus, Norton and Kolpak, to create user-friendly aftersales experiences that are helping to eradicate costly order errors, protect manufacturer revenues and limit product downtime, by enabling faster part fulfilment and repair.
Partful is a highly accessible platform that can be viewed on digital devices anywhere – and is available in 71 different languages.
About Par Equity
Par Equity is a leading venture capital firm based in Edinburgh and Leeds, which invests in innovative technology companies with high growth potential, across the North of the UK. Since it was founded in 2008, Par Equity has invested over £192m across 79 companies, catalysing a further £327m of capital from third-party investors. Par Equity has backed and exited high profile names such as Current Health and DeltDNA, which have helped build an impressive track record across 31 realisations to date.
About Blumberg Capital
Blumberg Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with visionary entrepreneurs to build successful technology companies that empower individuals, businesses and society through the innovative use of AI, big data and other transformative technologies. We are passionate about nurturing B2B technology companies from Seed stage through their growth journey, as active board members and hands-on advisors. We were among the first investors in industry leaders including Addepar, Braze, DoubleVerify, Finaro, Fundbox, HootSuite, Katapult, Nutanix, Trulioo and Yotpo. Find us in Miami, New York, San Francisco and Tel Aviv or at blumbergcapital.com.
