A SCOTS customer loyalty app firm is eyeing rapid expansion in the UK and Europe backed up by the hiring of three heavy hitters from two of the country's most successful start-ups.

Glasgow-based Swipii, which has developed software that allows smaller firms to set up loyalty points schemes, is moving to grow the number of businesses it works with from 1,000 to 3,000 by next year.

The firm, founded in 2014 by Chitresh Sharma and Louis Schena - who met while studying at University of Strathclyde - has raised $5 million (£4m) to date and is to announce a round of expansion funding.

Skyscanner growth director Janet Balneaves joins the executive team while former Skyscanner chief operating officer Mark Logan and 5pm.co.uk founder Ronnie Somerville have been appointed as non-executive directors to its board.

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The firm, claiming to already be the UK’s biggest loyalty provider to small and medium sized enterprises with around 1.2m current users, aims to double its turnover to £2.6 million and its staff to 50 in a year.

Both restaurant booking website 5pm.co.uk and Skyscanner, which was acquired by Chinese online travel agency Ctrip in a £1.4 billion deal, have pioneered technology and then grown the offering.

The technology developed by Swipii allows consumers to collect points by scanning a card, fob or via a mobile app in a similar way to large-scale companies like Tesco.

The Herald:

Mr Sharma, above with Mr Logan, Mr Somerville and Ms Balneaves, said: "We are the first European company to launch the card-linking technology and that is the reason why we are getting such heavyweight people on the executive team, to have a scalable, repeatable model.

"We want to replicate the same success with the new product and we want to have 3,000 businesses by this time next year.

"On top of that we want to do a scale-up round, which would allow us to expand into European countries.

"It is a bit early to denote which countries it is, but because we have investors and connections established in France, Germany and Spain, it is likely going to be one of those markets.

"The whole idea of the executive team who have expanded globally in the past is to get the same experience and leverage, the tools and platform from Skyscanner and other companies to bring into Swipii and bring the same success here."

He says that a recruitment drive is central to the expansion.

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He said: "We are around 20 people today and with the next round of funding the hope is to scale to 50 people by this time next year and hopefully keep hiring.

"One of the biggest focuses for us is that we are hiring left, right and centre and there are job opportunities in every department.

"Right now we want to double the numbers in the development team (from six to 12).

"In the last year we have been growing on average 17-20 per cent month on month which is pretty strong and we are hoping to not just maintain it but double that down for next year."

At Skyscanner, Ms Balneaves was responsible for implementing a growth-focused marketing structure to the company.

Read more: Skyscanner profits soar in first full year after Ctrip deal

She joins Swipii also as a growth director, where her expertise will "help the company establish a scalable expansion model for the business and its users both in the UK and internationally".

Mr Somerville was one of Swipii’s first investors in 2015, and Mr Logan has also taken up the position of non-executive director at Swipii after originally joining the company as an angel investor.

Mr Sharma added: “Our goal is to build the world’s largest local marketplace by connecting businesses, consumers and brands on one shared platform, and our recent senior hires are a vital step in helping us achieve that vision globally.

“We want to make Swipii a household name in the UK for local businesses and consumers to save money on their everyday purchases."