€600,000 funding boost for Huggity

Irish based Huggity is set to expand after it won €600,000 of funding to help develop its products and expand its overseas business.

The company is planning to add 16 new jobs to its Irish workforce by the end of the year, taking its total staff number to 21.

The new positions will mainly be in sales support and relationship management, and will be based at Huggity’s Dublin headquarters.

The funding round was led by the AIB Seed Capital Fund, with Enterprise Ireland also involved.

Chief executive Mike Sikorski said the money would be used to develop its products further. “We are planning to develop our application further to increase its reach and commercialisation capabilities,” he explained. The funding will also allow for more long-term planning for Huggity.

The tech start-up offers technology to event organisers that allows fans to tag themselves in high-resolution images taken at the event. The FanPic product offers clubs an additional opportunity to generate revenue from sponsorship, a portion of which would be shared with Huggity. Users can zoom into the crowd photo, locate themselves and friends, and then share a branded message on Facebook, Twitter or through email.

Part of the new development will include a mobile version of its application, merchandising capabilities and a content management system that will facilitate Huggity’s resellers around the world.

The company sells through partners in the US, Brazil, Australia, Norway, Poland, Turkey, and Belgium, and plans to launch in India. The merchandising aspect is a major boost for Huggity, adding an additional revenue stream for both Huggity and the clubs.

This will allow fans to purchase the image from within FanPic and print it on different items from jersey and postcards to posters to an keychains.

New products
"We're going to use a third party website for that but it will be integrated into our application," said Mr Sikorski .

New products are also on the cards as the company tries to build on the relationships it already has customers. An application targeting the conference industry is also in the works.

Huggity was founded in 2011 and has signed up a number of high-profile customers for its FanPic product including English football clubs Liverpool and Manchester United, the FAI, the IRFU and the Euro 2016 qualifiers. It has also worked with Aviva, Royal Bank of Scotland, Vodafone and the Qatar Foundation.