London, 12th May 2025 – Today, European tech investor Tenzing announced its investment in Tillo, a UK-based B2B marketplace for digital gift cards. Tillo operates through a market-leading single API, connecting 3,000+ global brands to power gift card provision for businesses to their consumers, employees and B2B customers. The company is headquartered in the UK, with offices in the US and Australia.
Founded in 2016 by Alex Preece (CEO) and Gareth Gillatt, Tenzing is investing alongside Alex and the continuing management team in a fully secondary transaction to buy out early VC and angel investors in Tillo. Tillo has demonstrated impressive growth since foundation, with gift card face value sales transacted through the Tillo Network growing by 50% year-on-year in 2024 and the acquisition of Jigsaw Business Solutions and the launch of Tillo StoreFront adding new capabilities to Tillo’s offering. It operates in 37 countries and 25 currencies globally and is actively expanding its presence in international markets.
Tillo benefits from strong tailwinds driven by increased adoption of gift cards as a payment mechanism, digitisation of card issuance, and growing automation of digital transactions. Their white-label solution, StoreFront, enables businesses to sell gift cards directly to consumers without complex integrations, creating meaningful differentiation.
With Tenzing’s expertise and backing, the new partnership positions Tillo for its next wave of profitable growth and opportunity to capitalise on the evolving competitive landscapes of its key UK and US markets. Tillo will benefit from the Tenzing team’s prior experience in the Incentives & Payments sectors and draw support from Tenzing’s Growth Team, including access to a Sherpa, Entrepreneurs Panel and a dedicated Acquisitions Director.
Gareth Healy, Investment Lead at Tenzing, commented: “We are thrilled to partner with Alex and team to invest in Tillo – we’ve been highly impressed with their ambition and track record, and are excited about the future ahead for the company. We see significant opportunities for growth in the US, continental Europe and further afield via continued product development and M&A all while reinforcing the strength of The Tillo DifferenceTM1. We look forward to sharing our expertise to accelerate this even further.”
Alex Preece, CEO of Tillo, stated: “The partnership with Tenzing marks a significant milestone for Tillo. Tillo has been capital efficient and profitable for 8 years, resulting in us not needing growth capital as we’ve built something special. Bringing Tenzing on board as our new partner not only provides significant liquidity for our early shareholders but also aligns us with a growth-focused investor who shares our vision and values. With the Tenzing team alongside myself and my leadership team I’m even more excited about what lies ahead as the partnership will see Tillo pulling on Tenzing’s expertise to accelerate our impact – for our partners, our people, and the market. We’re more energised than ever about the future we’re building together.”
Tillo is the fifth investment within Tenzing’s £900m Fund III, which closed in 2024, and is one of twenty-one high-growth tech and tech-enabled businesses within the Tenzing portfolio.
Tenzing was advised on the investment by Simmons & Simmons, Raymond James, and EY.
Tillo was advised by Osborne Clarke, EMC Corporate Finance and Crowe.
