People are not only shopping digitally more than ever, but also more than ever with their cell phones.
And for mobile-first companies like Snapcommerce, that is good news.
Snapcommerce, Formerly known as SnapTravel, the company raised $ 85 million in what the company calls a “Pre-IPO” growth round to “change the way people shop on their phones “To push ahead.
The Toronto, Ontario based startup has Build an AI-driven, vertical-agnostic platform that uses messaging to personalize the mobile shopping experience and “deliver the best promotional prices”. While the company originally focused on the travel industry, it is now branching out into other consumer industries – hence the name change.
Inovia Capital and Lion Capital jointly led the new growth round, in which Acrew DCF, Thayer Ventures and Full In Partners as well as the existing supporters Telstra Ventures and Bee Partners participated. The funding brings Snapcommerce’s total amount since its inception in 2016 to over $ 100 million. His final raise – a $ 7.2 million round from Telstra and NBA star Steph Curry – took place in 2019.
The startup was founded by technology entrepreneurs Hussein Fazal, whose former company AdParlor had sales of over $ 100 million, then sold to AdKnowledge in 2011;; and Henry Shiwho previously built Mentioned and worked at Google, where he helped launch YouTube Music Insights, according to YouTube previous ProWellTech coverage.
The co-founders of Snapcommerce, Henry Shi and Hussein Fazal. Image courtesy Snapcommerce
Snapcommerce launched its first travel-oriented product in 2017 Chatbots for interacting with customers via messaging apps such as SMS, Facebook and WhatsApp. However, the company also has people ready to help when people need more support. In the past, they essentially functioned as on-demand travel agents.
The service is not only intended for hotels and flights, but also to help people book restaurants and activities.
“Our focus was on building that personal relationship,” said Fazal. “Many people come back to us when they travel again.” In fact, over 40% of sales in 2020 came from repeat customers.
Over the years, the company is believed to have helped more than 10 million users worldwide save over $ 75 million. Total cell phone sales are expected to exceed $ 1 billion this year.
And now you can help consumers save money on goods.
“When you shop, it’s hard to find the right product, and even when you do, it’s difficult to find a good deal,” he said. “There are ways to get around this on a desktop. But that’s practically impossible on the phone. “
The company has improved profitability three months after the 2020 pandemic and, according to the CEO, saw sales increase 60% in the second half of the year from the second half of 2019 Fazal.
It then decided to reinvest its profits to continue growing the business.
“Profitability during the pandemic gave us confidence that we could turn to profitability at any time and gave us control of our own destiny, which made this fundraiser possible,” Fazal told ProWellTech. “The third quarter of 2020 was our biggest quarter to date. “
The COVID-19 pandemic, of course, only accelerated its growth as more consumers turned to cellular.
“We believe that the next wave of pantographs will be via the cell phone,” said Fazal. “Some of the new generation don’t even have desktops or laptops and spend all of their time on their phones and messaging. So we can be at the forefront. ”
Snapcommerce has its sights set on an IPO, but no specific schedule. The company didn’t reveal its current ratings or tough sales numbers. The company makes money by either marking the prices provided by a dealer or by charging the dealer a commission.
Chris Arsenault, Partner at Inovia and Snapcommerce The lead investor said his company “tripled” its investment in the startup after seeing success in the travel industry.
“Other companies out there just care about the transaction, forcing consumers to browse multiple services to see if they are getting the best price and at the same time tell them there are only two places left,” he told ProWellTech . “We believe that consumers will not accept this type of print selling in the future. Snapcommerce’s ability to build trust with its customers and service providers has drawn us to them as they define what the future of commerce will be like. “
Ultimately, the company plans to use its fresh capital to continue scaling with the goal of streamlining the entire mobile search, purchase, and fulfillment process and making “finding the right item at the right price as easy as sending a message to you to make trustworthy friend. ”
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