Serve First, the AI-driven customer experience and performance management platform, has secured £5m in new funding from Pembroke VCT and the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II, through fund manager Mercia Ventures.
Both funds first invested in June 2025 as part of a £4.5m funding round. Since then Serve First has almost doubled its annual recurring revenue (ARR) to over £2m and attracted new customers including Brentford FC, The Sushi Co, Topps Tiles, The Body Shop and Spud Bros. It has also expanded into Europe by securing a contract with a chain of over 2,500 pharmacies across seven countries.
Launched in 2023, Serve First’s AI-powered platform collects and analyses customer feedback from in-store surveys, online reviews and mystery shopping. Its software then translates these insights into actions for frontline teams, helping businesses to act on customer insight more quickly, supporting improvements in service performance and customer loyalty.
The business continues to work with enterprise customers across sectors including retail, hospitality, health and wellness, franchise and facilities management. It has also launched a new offering to support UK venue and events operators that are required to comply with the new ‘Martyn’s Law’ legislation.
The latest funding will be used to strengthen Serve First’s sales and marketing function, including the imminent appointment of a Chief Revenue Officer, and support continued product development, including further investment in AI capabilities.
Serve First was established by founder and CEO Erol Ayvaz, who has more than 20 years’ experience in technology and customer experience, including roles at Asana and Market Force Information. The company, which is based in Milton Keynes, now employs 25 staff.
Erol Ayvaz, Founder and CEO of Serve First, said: “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 by our exceptional team.
“It’s an exciting time to be operating in this space, and there remains considerable untapped potential for Serve First’s offering. We expect market demand to accelerate rapidly with the rise of agentic AI, which is making customer experience far more critical to business performance than ever before.”
Howard Mitchell, Investment Director at Mercia Ventures, said: “The Serve First team have built a great product that is loved by their expanding list of customers. With market demand strengthening, this is an opportune time for them to accelerate growth. We are excited to support them on their journey.”
David Tindall, Senior Investment Manager at the British Business Bank, said: “We are pleased to continue to support Serve First through the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II. In the last year, the business has shown ambitious growth through its expansion in Europe, delivering real impact. The new funding round will further support Serve First’s investment in AI and we look forward to seeing the business grow further.”
Fred Ursell, Head of Investments at Pembroke VCT, said: “The best investments reveal themselves quickly. Erol is a rare founder – 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.
“That founder-market fit is showing in the numbers: since backing him in June 2025, Serve First has grown revenue at breakneck speed, deepened relationships with its existing enterprise clients, and secured a significant European rollout with a major client. When a portfolio company executes this well this early, increasing our support is an obvious decision. We’re excited to back the team through the next phase.”
The £400m Midlands Engine Investment Fund II covers the entire Midlands region and provides equity investment up to £5m and debt finance from £25k to £2m to help a range of small and medium sized businesses to start up, scale up or stay ahead.
The purpose of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II is to drive sustainable economic growth by supporting innovation and creating local opportunity for new and growing businesses across the Midlands. The Midlands Engine Investment Fund II will increase the supply and diversity of early-stage finance for smaller businesses in the Midlands, providing funds to firms that might otherwise not receive investment and help to break down barriers in access to finance.