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Sophia Technologies

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Sophia.app is an on-demand marketplace for the private tuition industry

189%
 - 
Funded 23 Sep 2020
£300,000 target
£581,580 from 367 investors
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Business overview

Location London, United Kingdom
Social media
Website www.sophia.app
Sectors Home & Personal Digital B2C
Company number 11541298
Incorporation date 29 Aug 2018
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Investment summary

Type Equity
Valuation (pre-money) £2M
Equity offered 22.10%
UK tax relief

EIS

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Business highlights

  • 100% Repeat Booking Rate and 5 Star Tutor Reviews
  • Founded by Educational Leaders
  • Tutors fully vetted against highest standards of safe recruitment
  • 3 specially curated educational programme's designed and running
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Key features

  • Secondary Market
  • Nominee investment min. £10.74 +
  • Direct investment min. £25,000.00 +

Idea

Introduction

SOPHIA is an EdTech disruptor, bringing on-demand, flexible working to the £6bn UK tuition industry.

Founded by an Independent school Head Teacher and run by a team of educational leaders with decades of experience in the industry, we promote confidence and convenience without compromising on safety or quality of education.

Tutors are fully vetted by the education team against the highest standards in safeguarding and safer recruitment. Sessions are booked via an app and are delivered online, at home or anywhere the client finds convenient.

Substantial accomplishments to date

August 2019

- Sophia opens to tutors and begins the on boarding process (to date over 1400 applications received).

December 2019

- Sophia Tutor app is launched, 100 tutors are fully verified and ready to download the app and finalise their application.

- Sophia receives 2 Nominations at Education Investor Awards 2019 (Private Tuition & Market Entrant)

March 2020

- Sophia Client app is soft launched and tutors begin working face-to-face (pre-lockdown).

April 2020

- COVID hits and tutoring seamlessly moves online, clients booking sessions receive a weblink and learning continues as normal.

- Successful white labelling into China via local partner kicks off (88hrs of tutoring sold into China to date).

- SophiaX is launched, an online classroom based learning where parents can book classes with an extra-curricular focus.

- Virtual School is launched, providing parents with a home schooling alternative during COVID-19 and beyond.

June 2020

- Launch of SophiaX virtual summer camps, a 6 week programme of learning with clients signing up from UK, UAE, Qatar and Moscow.

Other Notable Achievements:

- 100% repeat booking rate (as of June 1st) - every client or parent has booked more than once.

- Working towards accreditation with U.K. Department of Education.

- 100% 5 Star reviews for tutors (based on over 300 sessions, correct as of June 1st)
Widespread media coverage (Telegraph, iNews, TechRound, OpenGov, Just Entrepreneurs, Channel5 News).

Monetisation strategy

1) Face-to-face & online Tuition:

Clients pay Sophia one of 3 rates based on the tier of tutor.

Sophia takes a fixed % commission when the session is booked and pays the remainder to tutors.

Sophia covers variable costs including 'gig-economy' insurance (via a partnership with Tapoly), payment processing fees (partnership with stripe) and retains gross profit of 16.4% per average session:

2) Virtual School - sessions are run daily and cover core curriculum across age groups from KS1 to GCSE. Up to 3 parents can book into a single session, parents get to select subject but not the specific time or tutors. Classes get booked up weeks in advance and this cross pollenates into clients booking specific tutors for one-to-one sessions via the app.

3) SophiaX - a wide variety of extra-curricular courses (Book club, Harry Potter and his World, Minecraft coding, Debating, Mathematical Art, Coding a Lego Maze), SophiaX feeds kid’s curiosity and elevates their learning with a variety of real time online classes.

Use of proceeds

The proceeds will be used to help fund our strong and continuing journey and to provide the cash runway to continue scaling.

The vast majority of the raise is focussed on Technological Development and Customer Acquisition & Retention:

1) Tech Development

User experience is key, Sophia puts a huge focus on education quality but the app also has to be quick, stable and easy to use. As our client base grows, we want our infrastructure will grow in order to be able to efficiently handle exponential increase in traffic.

2) Customer Acquisition & Retention

Sophia will look to aggressively acquire customers in order to harness the network effect. Clients will be predominantly acquired online via PPC and paid referral.

Key information

Outstanding Loans

The company has the following outstanding loans:

1) £50,000 loan from NatWest at an interest rate of 2.5% per annum. The loan is to be repaid 72 months after the loan is drawn down, which is May 2026.

2) £100,000 Director’s loan with no interest rate. The loan is to be fully repaid on event of default or the repayment date. The repayment date being 28 days from the Lender making a written demand for repayment. This loan commenced on 25th February 2020.

3) £100,000 Director’s loan with no interest rate. The loan is to be fully repaid on event of default or the repayment date. The repayment date being 28 days from the Lender making a written demand for repayment. This loan commenced on 4th November 2019.

4) £100,000 Director’s loan with no interest rate. The loan is to be fully repaid on event of default or the repayment date. The repayment date being 28 days from the Lender making a written demand for repayment. This loan commenced on 3rd June 2019.

5) £100,000 Director’s loan with no interest rate. The loan is to be fully repaid on event of default or the repayment date. The repayment date being 28 days from the Lender making a written demand for repayment. This loan commenced on 13th December 2018.

The funds raised from this investment round will not be used to repay these loans.

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If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

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Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Investing involves risks, including loss of capital, illiquidity, lack of dividends and dilution, and should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. Please read the Risk Warnings before investing. Investments should only be made by investors who understand these risks. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future.

This campaign for Sophia Technologies has been approved by Seedrs Limited (trading as Republic Europe) ("Republic Europe", "us" or "we"), as of 21 July 2020 as a financial promotion. Republic Europe is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with firm reference number 550317. In approving this campaign, Republic Europe has concluded that the information, taken as a whole, is "fair, clear and not misleading." This means that for factual statements we have reviewed evidence of their accuracy, and that for aspirational statements we believe they are phrased appropriately in light of their speculative nature. You should note that in the case of factual statements, the evidence we review is provided by the business, and we do not audit it, which means that we may not be able to identify forged or altered evidence. You should further note that in the case of aspirational statements, the nature of the type of businesses presented on the Republic Europe platform is such that they are likely to have high ambitions, and we may approve statements that convey those ambitions even where we do not believe, or we do not have a view on whether it is likely, that they will be fully realised. The pre-money valuation and investment sought in the campaign are those set by the business: they are not reviewed or established by us, and the valuation is not an independent view of what the business is worth. Given the nature and type of businesses presented on the Republic Europe platform, it is possible that the business has very little cash remaining prior to receiving this investment, and the investment sought may be necessary for the business's on-going existence.

Republic Europe does not make investment recommendations to you. No communications from Republic Europe, through this website or any other medium, should be construed as an investment recommendation. Further, nothing on this website shall be considered an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security to any person in any jurisdiction to whom or in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful. Republic Europe does not provide legal, financial or tax advice of any kind. If you have any questions with respect to legal, financial or tax matters relevant to your interactions with Republic Europe, you should consult a professional adviser.

Tax Relief (SEIS)

This business is eligible for SEIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 50% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Tax Relief (EIS)

This business is eligible for EIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 30% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Valuation (pre-money)

Valuation rounded from £2,005,516

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It is calculated as the pre-money valuation plus the amount of new investment. e.g. If Company A is ascribed a pre-money valuation of £1,200,000 by prospective investors investing £300,000, its post-money valuation is £1,500,000.

The investee business is responsible for setting its own valuation, it has not been prescribed by Republic Europe.

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Equity Offered

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When the amount raised is less than 100%, the equity offered is based on the target raise. Once the company has raised over 100% it is based on the total raised.

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Secondary market

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Direct investment

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Business Involvement

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