Parcel platform Sorted to end up in same stable as Huboo
Sale of the business for a token £1 seems to the norm in ecommerce merry-go-round
Hello Rainmakers,
Remember Huboo, which was sold to a specialist investor for £9? Yes, nine quid.
And Sorted, which ended up in a reverse takeover, backed by two veteran Rainmakers for £66.73. Yes, £66.73, no thousand or million left off the end. Sixty six pounds and seventy three pence.
Now the two businesses are likely to end up together in a consolidation of ecommerce logistics and fulfillment businesses that have had millions of investment pumped into them, but very little value to show for it.
Have a very Happy Easter, when it comes. We’ll be back next Wednesday.
Rainmakers subscribers get two unique pieces a week, but also full access to our back catalogue of investigations, scoops, and insights, including updates from fellow Rainmakers like this one, insights from The Secret Investor, interviews with entrepreneurs, and the leaders from VC and PE investors like Endless River Capital, Foresight, Mercia, Puma and WestBridge.
This morning, a dense and technical update from the directors of parcel tracking platform Sorted PLC drew a line under the current phase of the business, and effectively said that committing further significant investment towards enhancing elements of the business is “not in the best interests of shareholders”.
Only in the small print and the footnotes was it revealed that sale of £1 was to a buyer, only named as “Brislington Holdco Limited” in the footnotes at the end of a lengthy announcement.
Yes, £1. A quid.
That entity, it has emerged, is owned by investor Mahmoud Atalla, and it is also listed on Companies House as the controlling entity of Bristol-based Huboo, which was bought as a distressed purchase in 2025 for £9. As reported by Rainmakers at the time that investor consortium was led by Baaj Capital and Atalla Capital, who took over a company employing 643 people in the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Spain.
To get to that stage, it had been funded by £118m of equity and £20m of secured debt, as our story examined in some detail.
Similarly, since it was founded by David Grimes in Manchester in 2010, Sorted has been through several funding rounds and benefited from approximately £71.07 million in equity investment and approximately £4.36 million (excluding accrued interest) in debt financing.
In 2024 Sorted reversed into AIM-listed Location Sciences in a deal to buy the business for just £66.73, which saw Boohoo co-founder Mahmud Kamani and Zeus Capital founder Richard Hughes among its shareholders.
Sorted was originally set up by Manchester-based founder David Grimes (above) to support retailers and enable customers to track deliveries of parcels.
More recently the business has benefited from a £2million equity raise and the ongoing loan facility agreement with Bidco 3 Limited, a printing business owned by Richard Hughes.
