Social commerce startup Unbox raises £1.2m led by Mercuri with Notion Capital
At a glance
This article covers a funding round on 1 October 2025 for Unbox, a London-based social commerce management start-up, founded by Hugo Soul and Michael Coombs. The round raised £1.2m and was led by Mercuri with backing from Love Ventures.
What does Unbox do?
Unbox is a social commerce management platform that processes shoppable videos and provides analytics and creator tools for brands. It enables brands to host shoppable content, run creator campaigns and measure sales from social platforms.
Why is Unbox useful?
Problem
Brands cannot reliably scale sales through shoppable social content across platforms. They lack unified infrastructure, trustworthy sales data and easy creator workflows to manage campaigns.
Solution
Unbox explains that it provides a platform that aggregates shoppable videos, sales data and creator management tools for brands. This helps brands run, measure and scale social commerce campaigns across platforms with more confidence.
How much did Unbox raise?
Unbox raised £1.2m in a funding round led by Mercuri, alongside existing backers. This makes it the 1st largest funding round in October 2025 (2 recorded). As of 1 October 2025, the round is the 367th largest of the year (471 total) in the Startupmag database.
For details on how Startupmag compiles its rankings, view our Methodology.
Who invested in Unbox?
Key investors in the round included the following.
- Mercuri: An early-stage investor focused on companies at the intersection of media, entertainment and AI.
- Love Ventures: A venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies.
- Notion Capital: A venture capital firm investing in European B2B technology and SaaS companies.
- Dan Cobley: An angel investor with a background as a senior Google UK executive.
- Rich Waterworth: An angel investor with a background as general manager of TikTok Europe.
- Claire Hennah: An angel investor with a background as Unilever's chief digital commerce officer.
In the funding announcement, Alan Hudson from Mercuri said:
The founders bring real depth of experience, and the shift towards social commerce is only accelerating across platforms. Brands are looking for better ways to work with creators and Unbox's data-driven approach is very well positioned to meet this increasing demand.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of ecommerce venture capital firms in the UK
- Browse our directory of ecommerce angel investors in the UK
Who founded Unbox?
The founders of Unbox are Hugo Soul and Michael Coombs.
In the funding announcement, Hugo Soul, founder of Unbox said:
Every major social platform is becoming shoppable, and every global brand will need infrastructure to make social commerce deliver,
Where is Unbox based?
Unbox is based in London, UK.
What sector is Unbox in?
Unbox operates in the ecommerce sector. Ecommerce is the buying and selling of goods or services online. It covers shops, social platforms and apps where customers browse and purchase items.
Key trends and challenges in Ecommerce:
Platforms becoming shoppable
Social platforms are adding shoppable features, with social commerce forecast to reach about $6 trillion by 2030.
Need for infrastructure and measurement
Brands need robust infrastructure and measurement to manage creators and attribute sales from live shoppable videos.
Regulation and consumer trust
Evolving ad disclosure and data privacy rules across countries increase compliance burdens for merchants.
For a deeper look at innovation in this space, see the ecommerce startups in the UK.
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