Scottish technology scaleup Snappy Group has secured a seven-figure funding facility with Virgin Money’s venture debt team as the business continues to scale its retail technology and marketplace platforms across the UK.
The Dundee-founded company says this will strengthen its ability to invest across its product suite, support growing enterprise demand and accelerate the rollout of its technology to UK retailers.
Best known for its quick-commerce marketplace Snappy Shopper, Snappy Group has evolved into a broader retail technology platform, providing marketplace, order aggregation, white-label and retail media solutions to retailers across the UK.
The backing from Virgin Money follows a period of significant momentum for the business, with transaction volumes across the Snappy platform hitting record levels and annualised grocery GMV now exceeding £150 million and growing rapidly.
A string of recent partnership announcements have seen the Co-op, SPAR and Musgrave all select Snappy as their preferred partner as they seek to expand their rapid grocery delivery offerings.
“We are delighted to secure this facility with Virgin Money at such an important moment for Snappy,” said Barry McGonagle (pictured), CFO at Snappy Group.
“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.”
Founded in 2017, Snappy Group has grown from a rapid grocery delivery platform into a broader retail technology business. Today, the group 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 solutions; and Snappy Media, its retail media arm, including Snappy Connect.
Snappy 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 Co-op.
Snappy Group said the funding agreement with Virgin Money will create additional headroom to pursue growth opportunities across the UK and selected international markets.
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.”