Worcester e-commerce startup Boulevard secures £2.2 million seed funding from Fuel Ventures

Worcester-based online tech and e-commerce startup Boulevard has raised £2.2 million seed funding from the early and growth-stage VC, Fuel Ventures. to expand and diversify. It will also focus on refining and advancing its Eiger System, which is its proprietary platform that links its suppliers, product management and several other technologies.

Mark Pearson, Managing partner at Fuel Ventures said: “It’s clear from Boulevard’s unique approach, the building of their own end-to-end supply chain software and their impressive growth that they know how to be the big sellers on these platforms and continually adapting with the times. The decision to invest in Boulevard was an easy one for us: it is set to become a serious player among the world’s fastest-growing marketplaces.”

Founded in 2016 by young entrepreneur Dom Portman, Fancy Dress Worldwide became one of the largest and most successful online retailers of costumes and partywares within just a few years, winning StartUps.co.uk's exporter of the year award and being named in the StartUps 100 in 2019.

In 2020, the company began its diversification into multiple product categories with a renewed focus on trading across online marketplaces worldwide. As a result of the successful launch of new products across Arts & Crafts, Stationery, Pets, Toys & Games and more product categories, the company began a re-branding process to Boulevard, helped by Worcester based design agency Big Helping. The goal was to encapsulate the energy of a wide street, hustling and bustling with many colourful products of all shapes and sizes, but with a digital feel. As Boulevard, the company now have a core goal of continuing to grow as a marketplace super seller, offering the widest, best and most exciting range of product lines across multiple categories. Boulevard continues to trade across all the costumes and partywares lines that the company did under Fancy Dress Worldwide and takes the groundwork of the previous brand, applying it to multiple categories.

Dominic Portman, Founder and Managing Director, Boulevard, said: “We started life as a single category e-commerce business that we quickly scaled through the power of our own tech, Eiger.”

“The lessons we learnt on how to sell online as an e-commerce business and opened up our expertise and tech to help others to do the same. We’re now planning on advancing the Eiger platform to enable us to break into new markets and become a leading, global online marketplace super seller.”