eola just closed a major funding round

Today is a big day for eola. We have been hinting for a while now that we will have a huge, game changing announcement to make soon. On Tuesday 16th January, we signed the final document, and I can finally share the fantastic news.

We have officially closed our first major investment round 🚀🚀🚀

eola has been a labour of love from the start. Funded with our own savings, working gruelling hours from coffee shops, basements, foyers, cars and well...you get the idea. Every day. For the past 18 months...

We have worked from some very odd places.

We have been working towards our mission to bring experiences to everyone. From the activity centres to the activity seekers.

Now, backed by Startup Funding Club and their network of angel investors, as well as the London Co-Investment Fund, we have secured funding to scale our industry pioneering booking technology and officially launch commercially. Taking on the old giants by providing a cutting edge alternative which is faster, simpler, and more efficient. Designed especially for todays experience businesses, dependent on simple and efficient technology that works fast and seamlessly on mobile devices, even in low connectivity environments.

Here is a recent video we produced which about sums it up.

How it all began

Our start-up journey began out of frustration. We have lived in the city for years, and found that we were always talking about wanting to experience more during our free time, getting outside the city, try something new...do something! But it was easier said than done and more often than not we ended up spending our weekends scrolling through Netflix.

So we decided to stop waiting for someone to fix the problem for us and do something about it.

We spent months talking to people around the country; from business owners to potential end consumers. Pretty soon, a picture emerged of an industry which was struggling to come online, where most of the technology available was outdated, complex, or only suited for larger enterprise businesses.

Driving around the country chatting to businesses... while developing the platform

Over the past 18 months, eola has grown from some early scribbles on bits of paper to a beautiful and advanced platform with many happy businesses. You can read more about our journey in our post Why did we launch our start-up?

The simple 4 step flow at the heart of eola's next generation technology

Now we’ve gone from 2 guys in a Volvo to a team of 4 (soon to be 5) and growing.

Already, our site is in the top 0.1% on the internet for site speed, with a conversion rate triple the industry average.

We also want to say a huge thank you to our early partners! We couldn't have reached this stage without them. Here are some of the great businesses who believed in us and have gone above and beyond to help us to reach this point: Perranporth Surf School, Frangipani SUP, Edge Watersports, Saltburn Surf School, Suds Surf School, AberAdventures, Active 360 and The Kitesurf Centre.

Thank you to all those of you who have been a part of our journey so far, and we can't wait to meet those of you who are going to be joining us in the future. Every day our platform advances, regularly creating tools and features that are universal firsts for our industry. Help us make it the most powerful, beautiful product it can be.

Onwards and upwards.

Much love from team eola

Give us a shout if you want to join us on the journey or keep up to date - sign up for free, whether as an enthusiast, instructor, business owner, or just plain curious!

From left to right: Callum Hemsley, Simon George, Jaime Caballero, Dan Steele

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Looking for a booking system to help you run your outdoor activities? eola is dedicated to helping instructors and outdoor activity centres share their passion with more people. We reduce your administrative burdens, so you can have more time to spend doing what you love. Find out more at our watersports page.

Searching for other fun places to do outdoor activities with family and friends? Check out our blog page for more information.

Searching for more inspiration? Check out Where to go donutting in the UKand Best outdoor family activities in Cornwall.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn to keep up with the latest updates, and take a look at eola marketplace to find more great activities near you!