You have heard of Getir, Weezy, Dija, and more all transforming on-demand grocery delivery drastically across the UK, EU and the US. Of course, this happened when several customers switched to online shopping with the lockdowns of the ongoing pandemic. While Amazon and other big techs made the most of it, some local startups also thrived on the opportunity and another one to join the bandwagon is Snappy Shopper from Scotland.
Snappy Shopper, a home delivery platform enabling local retailers to develop successful home delivery offerings, and has supported partners with fully funded shopper marketing incentives.
Now the UK-based payments company, PayPoint also funded the online home delivery app in its £19.4 million funding round. PayPoint lead the investment with £6.6 million funding and the other investors that participated in the investment round include Highland Tech, Justin King, Maven Capital Partners, Kelvin Capital and Scottish Enterprise and existing investor Mercia Asset Management. With this round, the company is now valued at over £65 million.
The Dundee-based app startup delivers food, drinks and household goods from local convenience stores directly to customer’s doors in as little as 30 minutes.
With this deal, PayPoint also acquired a stake in the Snappy Group with PayPoint Group’s CEO, Nick Wiles, taking a seat on the Snappy Group’s board. The investment came after the partnership between the two brands, in which PayPoint One EPOS customers will be given access to the Snappy Shopper platform providing home delivery and click-and-collect options to local shoppers.
Snappy stated that the funds will be used to empower local convenience stores to compete effectively against dark stores, particularly retailers who don’t currently have the technology to offer home delivery. The company wants to capitalise on increased demand for local home deliveries.
Nick Wiles, Chief Executive of PayPoint, said: “We’re delighted to be investing into the Snappy Group 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.”
Mike Callachan, Co-founder of the Snappy Group, added: “Demand for the fundraise exceeded our expectations and we are pleased to have attracted such high-profile investors. 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.”
Plans new headquarters
Furthermore, Snappy Group is in plans to move to a new city centre headquarters, which is yet to be disclosed. Further, the startup eyes to create around 400 new jobs in sales, marketing and tech in the next three years with half of them to be based in Dundee. Already, the firm employs 90 staff and has outgrown its unit located at City Quay.
Wants to serve across the UK
The Scottish online grocer was founded in 2019 by Michael Callachan and Scott Campbell and the startup already works with brands such as SPAR, Nisa, Co-Op, Premier and hundreds of independently owned stores. The top-performing stores are achieving home delivery retail sales of more than £10k per week as per the company. Meanwhile, the company’s vision is to serve convenience stores in every part of the UK.
With their mission of bringing convenience stores to customer’s doors, Snappy Shopper might give tough competition to hefty market players like Deliveroo and Uber Eats with their local edge. But it can only happen if they have a swift delivery experience, a great app UI and lots of local product offerings. Have you used Snappy Shopper? If yes, share your experience in the comments’ section below.
The post Snappy Shopper raises £19.4M: Can the Deliveroo of groceries from Scotland level up on-demand delivery? appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).
