At iQualTech, we love to make everyday tech easier and better to use!
Business overview
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Social media | |
| Website | www.iqualtech.com |
| Sectors | Home & Personal Non-Digital B2C |
| Company number | 09503028 |
| Incorporation date | 23 Mar 2015 |
Idea
Introduction
At iQualTech, we create innovative accessories that allow you to experience everyday technology to the fullest. From top-quality speakers to bike lights and everything in between, we are passionate about making the tech we love more reliable, affordable, and easier to use.
Our business was born out of a passion for quality and fresh ideas. Armed with each of our three directors’ fifteen years experience in digital commerce, we are very successful and profitable doing what we love: developing affordable, premium-quality tech products for everyone to enjoy.
We consider ourselves a peer-review brand, proudly driven by customer service and satisfaction. We are motivated by gaps in the market and seek to improve and transform the tech you use daily. We closely monitor competitor products, analysing buying trends, pricing and feedback to identify how we can innovate and fill these gaps while inspiring and delighting customers – creating gadgets to make everyday tech better to use!
Intended impact
These days, technology is a vital part of everyone's lives: from mobile phones to music streaming, we all use it on a daily basis. At iQualTech, we believe that good technology should be easy to understand, affordable, and enhance your everyday life. From top-quality Bluetooth devices to high-powered bike lights and everything in between, we aim to do just that, creating excellent products that help make technology enjoyable for all.
We are inspired by innovation and quality, and we spend our time researching and creating – pinpointing opportunities to transform the technology we love, making it more accessible and enjoyable to use. We want our gadgets to interest and excite you – to help you make the most out of life. We are passionate about innovation and product development, and we love nothing more than designing new products to help you live life to the fullest.
We firmly believe that quality products and quality customer service go hand in hand. As a peer-review brand, our firm commitment to customer satisfaction has been instrumental to our success to date. We are top rated for customer service, and our customer reviews speak for themselves – as we often say, there's no need for expensive celebrity endorsements, because our fantastic customers do it for us!
We are constantly innovating: paying close attention to what customers want and need, and developing new products to fill these gaps. Every addition to our range is something that we regularly use, and we would never sell a product that we would not be proud to use ourselves.
In an increasingly digital age, technology should be easy to use and improve your daily life. Every new addition to our product range is created with this in mind, and we are committed to creating innovative products that are reliable, fun, and effortless – for everyone to enjoy.
Substantial accomplishments to date
iQualTech was founded on the premise that a digital startup could be successful and profitable right from the start. We’ve proved that notion a hundred thousand times over – organically growing our idea into a million-pound a year business in just 3 years*.
We've rapidly grown turnover, simply powered by our streamlined digital sales and marketing platform.
We proudly have a 100% performance rating on Amazon over the past year – our main selling platform – and we are in their top 1% of sellers for customer service.
Our success on Amazon propelled us to being profiled in an exciting series of videos highlighting the experiences of Amazon's top sellers, as well as a full-page feature in The Telegraph’s business section. This digital model has fostered rapid expansion, and we have so far launched in Europe, the U.S. and India in addition to our success in the UK.
*source: unaudited mangement accounts
Monetisation strategy
iQualTech was founded in 2013 with no investment apart from a credit card with a £7,000 limit. Since then, we have organically grown iQualTech into a million-pound a year online business in just three years, turning over in excess of £1 million in 2015 alone.
We believe that we're ahead of the curve and proud of it. Each of our three directors’ fifteen years’ of experience in e-commerce and web development has provided us with the essential tools and insight to understand the digital market, and our efficient, minimalist business structure means we do not require huge overheads or margin sacrifice. Our technical expertise and experience has allowed us to build bespoke internal methods of tracking and analysing third party product sales to identify target products and features – helping us stay abreast of customers’ needs.
We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We have been very successful to date with our small, experienced team and our lean and straightforward business plan, and we intend for investment to enhance this lucrative model. We aim to continue what we are doing, but at a larger scale, with more products, further expansion, and increased marketing support, allowing us to harness the full potential of iQualTech's success.
Efficiency is key for us. The beauty of our digital-only business is that we don’t need massive overheads or an oversized staff. This structure allows us to keep our brand and message our own, without sacrificing margins to any third party. Through our customer-focused digital model, we have established a proven track record of exceptional product selection and development, highly responsive customer service, and profitability and growth.
Use of proceeds
Investment will help us with our goals to:
- Increase profitability
- Reach new markets
- Expand our range
- Increase brand awareness
The £100,000 will be invested directly into growing the business.
We have negotiated with our suppliers and logistics partners based on increased production runs, and we plan to utilise investment to reduce these costs by approximately 30% in 2016 while freezing operating costs in line with revenue.
With improved economies of scale we would aim to increase profit margins without raising RRP or compromising the quality our customers love and expect from us. Additional stock would allow us to enter new markets while developing existing ones.
We intend to remain ahead of the curve, innovating and bringing our fantastic new developments to market sooner. Investing in above-the-line marketing will then drive brand awareness to a larger catchment, further growing the brand.
The company has an Amazon Lending loan which helps finance stock and is secured against stock held in the Amazon fulfilment centres. This can reach up to £74,500 over this period and is repayable over 6 months. The company also has an outstanding balance to Funding Circle for £50,806.77 which has 21 monthly repayments remaining, and a £20,000 overdraft facility. None of the proceeds of investment are intended to be used to repay any of this debt.
The Founders hold B shares, which have the same rights as the A shares to be issued as part of this round, except that the B shares carry a right to a preferential dividend. This means the B shareholders could receive a dividend each year in priority to other shareholders (with potentially no dividend being paid to other shareholders). It has been agreed that this right to a preferential dividend has been capped at £149,000, in aggregate, per year.
Investor Benefits
All investors will also benefit from our Investors Affiliate Programme, allowing you to earn up to 10% of referred sales value while enjoying exclusive discounts to share with friends and family.
- £500+ investors will receive a complimentary pair of our new Limited Edition Bluetooth Headphones when released this autumn.
- £1,000+ investors will receive a complimentary pair of our new Limited Edition Bluetooth Headphones as well as a complimentary new Limited Edition Bluetooth Pill Shape Speaker when released this autumn.
Market
Target market
iQualTech is differentiated in that we don’t need to pigeonhole ourselves into one specific market. In an increasingly digital technological age, our intuitive, affordable and user-friendly accessories benefit everybody – helping everyone to enjoy the rewards of good technology. Nearly everyone uses technology in some way: in the UK, we each spend on average two hours a day on smartphones alone. This emphasis on broad accessibility is fundamental to our brand ethos – we create gadgets that make everyday tech easier and better to use!
Our digital sales platform and attention to customer feedback has emphasised our awareness of our brilliantly diverse, broad market. We regularly hear from happy customers from an incredibly wide range of ages, locations, and interests. Our products make for great gifts, and we often receive feedback from customers who have purchased one of our speakers, cables, or earphones who have come back to buy again – this time as gifts for friends and family who have become hooked on the products! Our worldwide reviews through our international channels have only further underscored the widespread appeal of our broad range.
The individual products in our range also prioritise versatility and usability. We pay very close attention to customer feedback and complaints about similar products on the market to ensure that our products fill these gaps, and we strive to exceed customer expectations.
Our premium Bluetooth speakers are perfect on-the-go, suiting a broad range of needs and lifestyles and offering fantastically rich sound no matter the genre. Likewise, our range of high-quality earphones is ideal for a wide range of customers, with earbuds available in three sizes and optimised for a wide variety of musical genres. Our USB cables and chargers are tailored for an array of devices and specs, and our cycling gear fits all sizes – ensuring that everyone can make the most of our range.
Don’t just take our word for it – check out some of our reviews!
Characteristics of target market
Technology is here to stay, and our range of everyday tech products suits an increasingly tech-savvy worldwide market. Through Amazon and their fulfilment program, Fulfilment by Amazon, we have been able to rapidly expand iQualTech to additional markets worldwide while being based here in the UK. We have so far launched into Europe, North America, and India, and with investment we plan to further develop these markets as well as penetrate additional markets across the globe.
We passionately believe in quality over quantity, and it is essential that each product introduced to the range must be of premium grade and something we know customers will want. We closely monitor feedback and market trends in developing our products, always consciously remaining ahead of the curve. Our investment in reliable, superior specifications has paid for itself through our fantastic customer feedback, providing us with the momentum and brand confidence that has been fundamental to our success so far.
Marketing strategy
We have already entered several markets across Europe, the United States, and India through our lucrative partnership with Amazon, and investment will allow us to focus on growing our offering within these markets through increased stock and marketing reach. We also plan to use our investment to enter and develop within many other global markets this year, including Japan, Mexico, Canada, and China.
We currently operate a digital-only platform for both sales and marketing, an effective and streamlined model that has driven our immediate profitability from our onset as a company. We plan to keep our sales strategy as is, remaining a digital, direct-to-consumer brand – something that helps us keep profits high without sacrificing margin to third-party companies, ensuring that the business is always thriving on its own merits.
However, investment will allow us to prioritise other types of marketing, driving a much larger catchment of customers to our website and digital channels as we significantly increase brand awareness. Currently, we do most of our marketing through Amazon promotions, which have been very successful so far, especially through promotional events such as Prime Day – an incredible experience that saw us turn over five times more than our biggest day the previous summer. Our commitment to customer service and the fantastic feedback we receive has we believe now firmly established us as a top brand online – we often say that we don't need expensive celebrity endorsements, because our customers do it for us!
With investment, we will be able to diversify our marketing budget and invest in off-line marketing in addition to our digital efforts. Advertising on billboards and transport are some of the channels we are considering, as well as print advertising and affiliate marketing. We also plan on focusing on consumer PR and entering into awards competitions to create further buzz and underscore the the premium quality of our range.
Competition strategy
The reason we believe iQualTech is so successful against the incumbent competitors is that our mission is not to do everything, but rather to ensure that the things we do are done extremely well. Additional investment will allow us to harness and expand this ethos at a larger scale, helping us lower overheads while expanding our product range and significantly increasing brand awareness.
Our model of selling directly to customers online – through platforms such as Amazon, our own website, and via affiliate marketing – not only provides us with strong profit margins, it gives us fantastic direct interaction with our customers, something that is crucially important to us as a peer-review brand.
We are currently only scratching the surface of what we are capable of, and have delayed entering new markets due to the incredible growth we’ve experienced in our existing markets. With the help of investment, we firmly believe that we will be able to overcome these constraints and truly capitalise on our vast momentum and growth.
Because our products are designed to have such a broad appeal to a diverse range of customers, combining a more widespread marketing strategy with our affordable prices and promotional offers will be very lucrative – drawing in a wide catchment of customers to convert into loyal ambassadors of the brand.
In an increasingly digital technological age, our intuitive, affordable and easy-to-use accessories benefit everybody, allowing everyone to experience the rewards of good technology. Nearly everyone uses technology in some way, and this focus on broad usability has become the backbone of our success.
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