Snappy Group, the parent company of home delivery platform Snappy Shopper, has announced it raised £19.4m in its series A round of funding that includes a £6.6m investment from PayPoint.
The business, which currently has 90 employees, now plans to recruit a further 400 people over the next three years as it looks to expand across the convenience retail and – through its Hungrrr platform – hospitality sectors.
Other investors in the round included Highland Tech, Maven Capital Partners, Kelvin Capital, Scottish Enterprise and – as previously reported – former Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King.
King acts as Senior Advisor to Snappy and is also a Non-Executive Director. He is now joined on the Board by PayPoint boss Nick Wiles.
PayPoint’s investment in the business follows a partnership announced in May, and going live this month, that gives PayPoint One retailers access to the Snappy Shopper platform and the ability to offer customers home delivery and click & collect services.
Nick Wiles (pictured), Chief Executive of PayPoint, said: “We’re delighted to be investing into the Snappy Shopper business, building on the partnership that we announced recently to integrate their home delivery and click and collect technology with our own. This investment will enable PayPoint and our network of convenience retailer partners to remain at the forefront of retail and consumer trends.”
Home delivery exploded during the coronavirus outbreak, with Snappy growing from 220 business partners in December 2019 to its current 1,540 and counting. It now has more than one million users across the UK.
Despite the easing of lockdown restrictions, the home delivery market appears to be holding strong, with Snappy reporting a 16% increase in total Gross Merchandise Volume in the four weeks to 21 May against the same four weeks in January.
Commenting on the fundraising round, Mike Callachan, CEO and co-founder of the Snappy Group, said: “The proceeds will significantly accelerate our next phase of growth across the UK, including investments in new services for our retail and hospitality partners and new hires across the business.
“Post lockdown the demand for home delivery and the desire to shop locally is greater than ever, but the increasing number of anonymous dark stores is a threat to local businesses and communities, which must not be underestimated. We are well placed to empower local business to offer another great service to their customers, and better compete in this fast-changing retail market.”
