Vunani Capital invests seed capital in SnapnSave ahead of planned Series-A round

Vunani Capital, a pan-African diversified financial services group, today announced that it had concluded an investment in SA startup SnapnSave through its Vunani Fintech Fund.

SnapnSave’s app facilitates discounts for shoppers on their favourite products, wherever they shop, just by snapping a photo of their till slip.

Vunani Capital said in a statement today that the investment will be used to further grow the shopper and vendor base of SnapnSave to enhance the company’s position as one of South Africa’s leading grocery coupon cashback apps.

The startup was founded by Mark Bradshaw in 2015, while the startup lists Tina Fisher as a co-founder.

Vunani Capital’s investment in SnapnSave will help get the startup to its Series-A round in August next year

Neither Vunani Capital nor SnapnSave disclosed the value of the investment.

When contacted by telephone today by Ventureburn, Bradshaw was willing only to say that the investment was a “small seed round” to get the company to its Series-A round which the startup intends concluding in August next year.

He said the company has 25 staff at the moment — the same number it had in November last year. The number is however up from the 15 it had in August 2017.

Round follows R14m from Smollan, Kalon

The seed round follows a funding round that SnapnSave concluded in November last year when venture capital company Kalon Venture Partners and retail solutions company the Smollan Group SA increased their stake in SA shopping community SnapnSave to over 50% by investing a further R7-million in the startup.

That tranche formed part of a R14-million round in funding committed by the two investors in 2017.

In its statement today, Vunani Capital said SnapnSave has grown to over 350 000 users with a 500% increase in activity since inception.

Over 1.5-million till slips have been submitted to the platform and over R14-million in cash rewards has been given back into South African consumers’ pockets. The app is used in over 200 000 grocery retail points in South Africa.

The financier said leading brands like Coke, Pioneer Foods, Unilever, SC Johnson and more are working closely with SnapnSave to engage with shoppers. This, it said, has resulted in revenue growth of over 400% since the startup’s first year of operation.

In the same statement, Vunani’s executive director Mark Anderson said the startup is the finance company’s first fintech investment and added that the financier expects to conclude further fintech investments, as it seeks to diversify its financial services offering.

Read more: Kalon, Smollan up stake in SnapnSave to over 50% with new R7m funding tranche
Read more: SA’s SnapnSave in R14m investment from Kalon Venture Partners, Smollan