SnapnSave raise R14mln from Kalon and Smollan

Kalon Venture Capital and Smollan Group are each backing SnapnSave, the South African retail discount app company with R7 million, (about $500,000). The investment earns each a 20% stake in the startup, which was launched in the middle of 2015.

Shoppers earn discounts from SnapnSave by photographing their till receipts and, as their CEO Mark Bradshaw told industry publication Ventureburn, has achieved 200,000 app installs so far, returning over R3.5 million in cash to South Africa’s shoppers over the last 18 months. It’s estimated that more than 15% of South Africa’s mobile phone users have downloaded the app already. The company plans to grow its number of installs to 500,000 within the next year.

The fresh capital will be used to help the company expand into new international markets, with Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Nigeria and Kenya topping the list of target countries. The firm’s strategy is to leverage Smollan Group’s presence in 50 countries and its network of over 500,000 retailers to help it meet its expansion goals. Additionally, as the technology does not require integration with tills, the product is quickly scalable and faces few barriers to adoption and use.

Kalon Venture Partners is the new name for Grovest Tech, often referred to as Grotech, which rebranded itself two weeks ago. At the time the firm announced that it is on the cusp of making 3 investments, of which SnapnSave is the first. The other, as yet unnamed, investments are expected to be an African influencer marketing software business and a digital marketplace facilitating the purchase and lease of solar panels. Source: Africa Capital Digest