Retail tech start-up NearSt has raised £2m in seed funding from a number of investors, as the Google-backed business looks to drive more footfall to bricks-and-mortar stores.

The retail technology start-up has secured the funding from a number of notable investors, including YYX Capital, which brings the total raised by NearSt to more than £3.2m.

NearSt, which partnered with Google in November 2018, said it would use the latest cash injection to “accelerate uptake by retailers in the UK with a wave of new hires”, as well as launch its offering in the US.

The business, founded in 2015, takes data from retailers’ point-of-sale systems to give customers up-to-date information on shops near them that have what they would like to buy, rather than having to buy online.

The start-up previously received funding from investors such as Will Hobhouse, Ben Laurie and artificial intelligence firm DeepMind.

The business sends 5,000 extra customers a month into UK high street stores and hopes to use some of the latest funding round to grow this to over 100,000 a month by the end of the year.

NearSt co-founder Nick Brackenbury said: “Most of the products we buy online are stocked in a store nearby. Until today though, they were invisible to your smartphone, so online was the only easy option. We’re solving that problem for retailers by making it effortless to get their products seen by the millions of local searches happening every day near their stores.

“The magic of NearSt is how simple it is for a retailer to take advantage of this cutting-edge technology. A few minutes and a few clicks is all it takes to get their inventory management system hooked up.”

YYX Capital founding partner James Cox said: “Many people presume ecommerce signals the death knell for the high street, but over 90% of all purchases still happen in-store globally. This is a multi-trillion dollar market that technology has barely touched and NearSt has the potential to truly transform how we all interact with physical retail.

“Google already sees the impact live in-store inventory data can have and we’re just scratching the surface with the potential this can have for other technology companies.”

Topics