By Staff Writer
SnapnSave, South Africa’s fastest growing shopping community, has sold a minority stake to both Kalon Venture Partners and Smollan Group SA.
Kalon, a venture capital fund and Smollan Group, an international retail solutions business invested R7 million each.
SnapnSave, founded by Mark Bradshaw is South Africa’s leading cashback coupon app that gives shoppers cash back on their favourite products, wherever they shop, just by snapping a photo of their till slip.
The launch of SnapnSave comes in the wake of a surging global trend that will see over one billion people globally expected to use digital coupons by 2019.
In just over 18 months, SnapnSave has already given SA shoppers over R3.5 million cash back into their bank accounts and is about to reach 200 000 app installs.
The funding will help grow the app downloads to 500 000 in South Africa within a year and will support entry into Asian and African regional markets: Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, as well as Nigeria, Kenya and a North African country.
SnapnSave will enter these markets via Smollan’s network which is present in more than fifty countries and provide services to over 500 000 retailers.
“Mobile-based coupons are part of the daily shopping habits of Europeans and Americans. Now we’re seeing this trend emerge in South Africa with over 15% of SA smartphone owners already having used a digital coupon. Consumers love saving money and with the state of the economy they are looking at ways to put real cash back into their own pockets,” says SnapnSave CEO Mark Bradshaw.
The investment forms part of Kalons’ strategy to position itself as the preeminent venture capital company in Africa, investing in disruptive digital technologies solving African problems. This acquisition strengthens Kalon’s commitment to investing in South African entrepreneurs who are disrupting various industries.
The fund has raised R90m to date and aims to raise a further R160m by the end of February 2018. The investment announcement comes at the same time as Kalons’ next capital raising round, which opens in early August and closes on 30 September 2017.
