MEZIESBLOG understands that Serve First, which bills itself as an AI-driven service which also specialises in performance management, will announce the new capital injection later this week.

The money has come from Pembroke VCT and the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II – through fund manager Mercia Ventures – both of which initially invested as part of a £4.5m fundraising last June.

Serve First, which also has Topps Tiles and Spud Bros as clients, has seen annual recurring revenue (ARR) double since last year’s funding boost.

Launched in 2023, the company’s collects and analyses customer feedback from in-store surveys, online reviews and mystery shopping.

Its software then translates this data into insights enabling its clients to deliver improvements in service performance and customer loyalty.

Serve First’s new funding will be used to strengthen its sales and marketing function, including through the appointment of a chief revenue officer.

The Milton Keynes-based company was established by chief executive Erol Ayvaz and employs 25 people.

“The company’s growth over the last year is a clear indication of the market appetite for Serve First’s offering, and this latest funding injection speaks to both the future potential of the business and the strong delivery over the last year,” Mr Ayvaz said.

Pembroke has backed prominent companies such as ME+EM, the women’s fashion brand, ticketing site Seatfrog and Secret Food Tours.

Fred Ursell, head of investments at Pembroke Investment Managers, described Mr Ayvaz as “someone who has both operated multi-site businesses at the coalface and scaled software companies, which means he understood this problem from the inside before Serve First ever wrote a line of code”.