Ecommerce startup Givestar raises £9m led by Mercia Ventures with Love Ventures
This article covers Givestar, an ecommerce startup, which has raised £9m in a growth funding round led by Mercia Ventures with participation from Love Ventures. The funding will be used to accelerate Givestar's expansion in the UK and US, develop its product and grow its team, supporting charities' digital fundraising and efforts to engage younger donors.
Givestar, an ecommerce startup, has raised £9 million in a growth funding round led by Mercia Ventures, with participation from Love Ventures. The capital will be used to accelerate expansion in the UK and US, develop the product and grow the team — a notable step for companies trying to modernise how charities reach younger donors.
Why it matters
Digital fundraising has been slow to adapt to a cashless society, and Givestar’s bet is that embedding donation tools into the moments when people sign up for events can convert participants into long-term supporters. The company says 76% of its users are under 35, a demographic many charities struggle to engage, and reports rapid growth in active fundraisers this year. If those numbers hold, platforms like Givestar could shift where and how charities allocate acquisition and engagement budgets.
Inside the product
Givestar began by turning smartphones into contactless donation points. It has since expanded into a platform that connects charities, fundraisers, donors and events, covering digital fundraising, event fundraising, supporter engagement and charity stewardship. The product is integrated into the sign-up flows of events so charities can recruit fundraisers at the moment participants register.
The company is the official fundraising platform for event partners including RunThrough, Tough Mudder UK, Spartan UK, Ultra Events and Ultra X, and says it is built into hundreds of events in the UK. In the US it has partnerships across more than 70 events, including Bay to Breakers, the Las Vegas Marathon and the Portland Marathon. Spartan and Tough Mudder named Givestar their Official U.S. Fundraising Partner earlier this year, a move that brings the technology to large annual participant pools.
Givestar reports nearly 800,000 user accounts, more than $70 million raised from millions of donors, and fundraising services used by over 4,000 charities. Active fundraisers are up 225% year to date, according to the company.
Who are the investors?
The round was led by Mercia Ventures, with participation from Love Ventures. Mercia is taking the lead role in this round and frames the investment as backing not only a piece of technology but a network built into participation events.
In the announcement, Hugo Lough, Investor at Mercia Ventures, said:
Fundraising behaviour has changed significantly over the past decade, but much of the technology supporting charities has struggled to keep pace. What stood out to us about givestar was not only the technology the team has built, but the network they are creating around it. By partnering with some of the biggest participation events in the UK and establishing an early foothold across more than 70 events in the US, they are embedding fundraising into the places where it naturally begins. Tom, Alex and the wider team have already built impressive momentum, and we are excited to support them as they continue building the technology and community connecting charities, events, fundraisers and donors, with the ambition to become the technology layer powering modern fundraising.
The investment signals interest from institutional investors in tools that link consumer behaviour at events to long-term donor relationships, and gives Givestar funding to deepen partnerships and hire for US expansion.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of ecommerce venture capital firms in the UK
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Tom Montague, Co-founder at Givestar, said:
When we started givestar, we'd noticed that young people hadn't stopped caring about causes - they'd just stopped carrying cash. So we put the collection tin on the phone. But we quickly realised the opportunity was much bigger. Fundraising is still fragmented across events, fundraisers, donors and charities. We're building the technology layer that connects those worlds, creating a community that makes giving and fundraising more engaging and ultimately powers modern fundraising. This investment gives us the firepower to take that ambition much further, particularly in the US.
Montague’s framing underlines the company’s dual focus on product and network effects: technology to handle transactions and a distribution strategy that leans on event organisers to bring new fundraisers into the platform.
The bigger picture
Givestar’s raise sits at the intersection of two trends: growing digitisation of charitable giving and the commercialisation of mass participation events as channels for donor recruitment. For charities, the appeal is straightforward — acquire supporters where they already engage, and then apply CRM and stewardship tools to retain them. For event operators, an embedded fundraising flow can be an added service to participants and partners.
The funding also reflects a broader appetite among UK investors for businesses that scale internationally via partnerships rather than purely organic consumer growth. Givestar’s US foothold and event roster will be key to whether it can translate UK traction into sustainable global revenue.
As the company expands, its progress will be one to watch for UK and European charities and startups alike, especially those looking to bridge consumer payments, events and donor management in a cashless era.
They've invested in Givestar
Get to know these ecommerce investors
| Investors | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mercia( ) Mercia is a venture capital firm focused on fuelling UK business ambitions throu... Manchester  | ||||
 Love Ventures( ) Love Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on empowering innov... London | ||||
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