Snap

Idea

Introduction

We believe intercity travel is broken. Snap is here to fix it.

Uber, ViaVan and Lime have made the world hyper-aware of the flaws of existing transport models: expensive; overcrowded; and inconvenient.

Snap’s technology platform lets people create the services they want using spare capacity on high quality coaches.

Snap is a tech platform not an operator. We’re building a virtual network to enable cheaper travel with higher quality.

Users travel at a rate 66% cheaper than trains with convenient local pick-up points and fully flexible capacity (more demand? Just add more trips…). Our competitors are incumbent providers such as National Express and Megabus, constrained by legacy technology and historic operating models.

The long distance leisure travel space in our home market is worth £15bn in the UK alone. Customers engage with us because of affordable prices, convenient pick-up points and in the knowledge that coach travel is the lowest carbon form of domestic travel.

Intended impact

Just as Uber has transformed local travel, Deliveroo is transforming deliveries and Airbnb has transformed short-term rentals, so Snap aims to disrupt the staid world of intercity transport.

By using existing assets and operating a capital-light marketplace model (analogous to Airbnb for holiday lets), Snap expects to be able to offer prices ~66% cheaper than a typical (off peak) rail fare.

Our space is the domestic market for ground-based long distance leisure travel. It sounds like a niche but, because transport is the largest single category of consumer expenditure, it is part of a niche worth £116bn.

In a world in which ownership matters less, carbon matters more and community is king; we believe Snap is the future of travel.

Existing investors in Snap include Kindred Capital, Oxford Capital, Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV) and a team of expert angel investors from the bus and coach sector. Following feedback from our customers, we are now opening investment to the wider Snap community.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Snap was founded by Thomas Ableman after more than a decade in some of the best-performing companies in intercity leisure travel.

Thomas joined National Express as a graduate from Oxford University and went on to become Product Development Director. He then joined Chiltern Railways as Commercial Director, part of the team that built the first new rail link to London from any major British city in 100 years.

But Thomas couldn’t shake off the conviction that transport could be so much better if reimagined.

Applying deep domain knowledge from his career, he built a team and established Snap. Snap is now in three cities and has carried 57,050 unique customers a total of 25 million miles.

Users love the platform and average customer rating is 4.7 / 5 stars. To date the company has made £1.2m in sales.

Snap has attracted the attention of leading venture capital funds and angel investors with significant industry expertise.

Monetisation strategy

Snap takes an average 20% fee on profitable trips listed on the Snap platform, with 80% going to the coach operator.

The fee is directly linked to customer star ratings so operators are financially incentivised to delight customers (unique in public transport).

Snap recently launched a new commission-based model in which risk sits with the operator and Snap has no inventory exposure until a service is fully mature. Once a service is mature, Snap hires additional coaches when capacity is full.

We expect to charge an average fare of £10 (approximately 66% cheaper than a typical off-peak rail fare) and a typical coach has 50 seats. On this basis, Snap would earn £100 for every full coach journey. A typical coach with our target 38 passengers would

Use of proceeds

Snap is a tech platform, and the majority of proceeds (54%) will be spent on people, with marketing the second largest category (20%).

Following the launch of the commission-based model, the main focus for Snap in this funding period will be to prove success in a small number of cities before raising a larger scale round for growth and expansion.

Snap has a strong leadership and Board and good governance, with 20% of Snap equity owned by institutional investors. In addition, the largest angel investor holds a monthly management review with the leadership team to ensure financial control and discipline.

We expect the finance being raised in this round to fund the business to July 2020, by which time we aim to have raised further investment.

Snap is an EIS qualifying investment.

Important information

Seedrs investors in this campaign will receive the same class of share as the lead investors. These shares have 2x participating preference rights and rank as the most senior class of share. This means that in the event of a return of funds investors will receive two times the amount they initially invested (their ‘2x Preference Amount”) and then participate pro-rata in any remaining distributable amount, ahead of other investors. These shares are expected to be EIS eligible.

Existing institutional investors in the company hold 1x non-participating preference shares.

The 1x non-participating preference rights mean that in the event of a return of funds the preference shareholders will receive the greater of (a) the amount they initially invested (their “Preference Amount”) and (b) their proportionate (pro-rata) share of any remaining proceeds after the Seedrs investors have received their 2x preference allocation