Swedish freemium-model ecommerce platform Tictail has raised $8 million (£4.8 million) in Series A funding led by Thrive Capital in New York and Balderton Capital in London.

The easy-to-use platform is popular with start-up businesses because of its low barriers to entry and is popular with budding entrepreneurs in the UK.

Other strategic investors included Nick D’Aloisio, the Australian-born British creator of Summly, which was bought by Yahoo for a reported $30 million in 2013.

Also Scott Bellsky, founder and CEO of Behance; Andy Dunn of Red Swan Ventures and founder and CEO of Bonobos; and Jesse Derris, founder and CEO of Derris & Company.

Tictail was founded in 2011 by Swedish entrepreneur Carl Waldekranz with co-founders Kaj Drobin and Siavash Ghorbani. The platform launched in May 2012 and already has 10,000 users in the UK alone.

“Thrive is a great strategic partner and we’re looking forward to the team’s input for the US market as we establish and consolidate our US presence,” said Mr Waldekranz.