It then decided to re-invest its profits to continue growing the business. The company turned the corner to profitability three months into the pandemic in 2020, seeing a 60% spike in sales in the second half of the year compared to H2 2019, according to CEO Fazal. But on mobile, it’s virtually impossible.” “When shopping, it’s hard to find the right product and even if you do, it’s hard to find a good deal,” he said. It expects to cross over $1 billion in total mobile sales this year.Īnd now it’s ready to branch out into helping consumers save money on goods. Over the years, the company claims to have helped more than 10 million users globally save over $75 million. “Many people end up coming back to us when they travel again.” In fact, over 40% of its sales in 2020 came from repeat customers. “Our focus has been on building that personal relationship,” Fazal said. Its service is not just for hotels and flights, but also to help people book restaurants and activities too. But the company also has human agents ready to help if people need more assistance, in the past essentially serving as on-demand travel agents. It works by using chatbots to interact with customers via messaging apps such as SMS, Facebook and WhatsApp. Snapcommerce launched its first, travel-focused product in 2017. The startup was founded by tech entrepreneurs Hussein Fazal, whose prior company AdParlor grew to $100+ million in revenue, then sold to AdKnowledge back in 2011 and Henry Shi, who previously built uMentioned and worked at Google, where he helped launch YouTube Music Insights, according to previous TechCrunch reporting. Its last raise - a $7.2 million round from Telstra and NBA star Steph Curry - took place in 2019. The financing brings Snapcommerce’s total raised since its 2016 inception to over $100 million. Inovia Capital and Lion Capital co-led the new growth round, which included participation from Acrew DCF, Thayer Ventures and Full In Partners, as well as existing backers Telstra Ventures and Bee Partners. The Toronto, Ontario-based startup has built out an AI-driven, vertical-agnostic platform that uses messaging in an effort to personalize the mobile shopping experience and “deliver the best promotional prices.” While it was initially focused on the travel industry, the company is now branching out into other consumer verticals - hence its name change. Snapcommerce, formerly known as SnapTravel, has raised $85 million in what the company is describing as a “Pre-IPO” growth round to help further its mission of “changing the way people shop on their phones.” People are not only shopping digitally more than ever, they’re also shopping using their mobile phones more than ever.Īnd for mobile-first companies like Snapcommerce, this is good news.
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