A corporate gifting and branded merchandise technology platform has raised £3.7m in a new funding round.
Go Swag secured the money in a round led by Mercia Ventures, with participation from Techstart Ventures and strategic angel investors.
The company employs 30 people in its Glasgow head office, supplying brands including including Meta, Apple and Netflix.
It’s achieved 5 consecutive years of triple-digit compound annual growth and is now expanding into the United States.
Its founders are hoping to disrupt the corporate gifting industry, which is projected to reach $1.1trillion by 2028. Rather than “churning out low-quality and gimmicky products people don’t want and won’t use,” which end up in landfill, they’re looking at it as a “seamless, strategic brand channel.”
That’s being done through its digital platform, which integrates AI-driven product curation with “a high-touch, white-glove service model” to manage the entire process, from initial concept through to warehousing, customs, and fulfilment.
“Corporate gifting is a trillion-dollar industry that spent decades normalising mediocrity because no one built a competitively viable alternative,” explained Conor McKenna, CEO and Co-Founder of Go Swag.
“We started Go Swag with less than £200 and the belief that every gift a company puts its name on either strengthens the brand or quietly undermines it. This funding allows us to take this conviction global, beginning with a major US market expansion. The catalogue is dead and we’re replacing it with smart AI-assisted curation and a better gifting process to match.”
McKenna stated that the company’s proprietary technology, including AI engine, Sonny, can deliver curated product recommendations in seconds.
In additional its “Claim Pages” collect sizes and addresses directly from recipients “to eliminate gifting administration by up to 96%” and common issues such as ill-fitting “unisex” clothing.
“Go Swag is building a technology business in a sector that has resisted innovation for decades,” said Hugo Lough, Investment Director of Mercia Ventures.
“Conor and Ben identified the structural advantage, then delivered enterprise-grade programmes at a fraction of the operational cost of incumbents. Go Swag seized a category-defining opportunity and capably translated it into sustained growth. Their combined product instinct and commercial discipline made them an exciting industry upstart, and they’re now emerging as a serious competitor. Throughout our time speaking with Conor and Ben we’ve been consistently impressed by their innovative instincts coupled with a focus on scalability in everything they do. We’re delighted to be partnering with them on the next phase of their growth”
Go Swag supplies vending machines to Meta’s 3 London offices, the first co-branded gifting machines in a global tech workplace.
The funding will be used to accelerate international expansion, particularly in the United States, and to open a warehouse in Southeast Asia to support global distribution.
It also plans to grow its team from 30 to 70 employees across growth, sales, engineering and operations.
