“This facility adds further firepower alongside previous equity investments” – Barry McGonagle, chief financial officer
Scottish grocery delivery platform Snappy Group has secured a new seven-figure funding facility as it looks to accelerate its growth across the UK.
The new agreement with Virgin Money’s venture debt team has been described as an important milestone for the Dundee-founded company.
Best known for its Snappy Shopper app and website, the group has evolved into a broader retail technology platform, providing marketplace, order aggregation, white-label and retail media services to retailers across the UK.
The backing from Virgin Money is said to follow a period of significant momentum for the business, with transaction volumes across the Snappy platform hitting record levels and annualised grocery gross merchandise value (GMV) now exceeding £150 million and rising rapidly.
Demand for Snappy’s order aggregation product also continues to grow, with a strong pipeline of major global retailers now in discussion.
Barry McGonagle, chief financial officer at Snappy Group, said: “We are delighted to secure this facility with Virgin Money at such an important moment for Snappy. Demand for our products and services is growing rapidly, transaction volumes across the platform are at record levels, and the market opportunity in front of us is significant.
“This facility adds further firepower alongside previous equity investments and gives us the capital and flexibility to accelerate into that opportunity with confidence. We have known the team at Virgin Money for several years and are pleased to be partnering with them as we enter this next phase of growth,” he added.
The firm said the funding agreement with Virgin Money would create additional headroom to pursue growth opportunities across the UK and “selected” international markets.
Founded in 2017, Snappy Group now operates through three core divisions: Snappy Shopper, its marketplace and rapid delivery platform; Snappy Technologies, its “q-commerce” technology stack, which includes its order aggregation and white-label technology services; and Snappy Media, its retail media arm, including Snappy Connect.
The group works with a wide range of independent and national retail partners across the UK convenience sector, including leading UK convenience retailers such as Spar, One Stop, Morrisons and the Co-op.
Andrew Stirrat, senior director of venture debt at Virgin Money, said: “We have closely tracked Snappy Shopper’s progress over several years and have been consistently impressed by the strength of the business and its sustained growth. We are delighted to support one of Scotland’s leading scale-up technology companies through this lending facility and look forward to backing the next phase of its ambitious expansion.”
Virgin Money has some 6.6 million retail and business customers across the UK and is now part of Nationwide Building Society. Virgin Money is headquartered in Glasgow with major offices in Newcastle and London, and, since 2019, Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank have been rebranded as Virgin Money.
As the Snappy Shopper marketplace continues to deliver strong growth and the Snappy Technologies order aggregation product gains traction, the Virgin Money facility gives the group increased flexibility and capacity as it enters a significant period of commercial growth.