Revolutionary rail ticketing app Seatfrog has secured a £6m funding round to deliver the next stage of its expansion plan after 12 months of record growth.
Backed by leading investors Pembroke, Praetura and Octopus Ventures, the latest funding round will allow the travel innovator to embark on a new recruitment drive and meet the demands from operators across Europe, accelerating the next wave of its platform as it bids to become the pan-European choice for rail.
Seatfrog is on a mission to reinvent the experience of catching a train for millions of European passengers and the operators that carry them.
Launched in 2018 to initially combat the 570+ million first-class seats that travel empty each year, Seatfrog has become the go-to choice for over one million passengers to get the best journey for their money.
Seatfrog has already saved consumers more than £43m across 3,400+ destinations with its smarter technology that helps operators run more profitable networks, increasing new revenue by over 300 per cent.
To date, it has secured exclusive partnerships with 16 major train operators covering over three billion journeys across the UK and Europe, with Italian operator Trenitalia the latest to put its faith in Seatfrog to deliver a better journey for its 500 million passengers.
EnviroTech 50 star Modern Milkman backed by Praetura Ventures
CEO Iain Griffin, who co-founded Seatfrog with Dirk Stewart, said: “Our mission is to be the platform of choice for rail, helping people fall in love with taking the train again, and enabling operators to run more profitable networks full of happier, less stressed passengers – it’s long overdue.
“Today’s investment marks the latest milestone on our journey but it’s by no means our final destination. With the launch of our Train Swap feature across the UK and our expansion into new European markets, we are unleashing a new platform that helps passengers get an unrivalled experience and operators run more efficient networks well beyond the capabilities of legacy technology.”
Fred Ursell, investment director of Pembroke Investment Managers, added: “Over half of UK rail passengers are unhappy with value for money, largely due to the European rail sector being starved of innovation.
“When we met Iain and Dirk, their vision and passion to transform the customer experience for travellers whilst providing a ‘win-win’ business model for train operators became immediately clear.”
David Foreman, managing partner of Praetura Ventures, said: “Many of our team used Seatfrog long before we spoke to them about this investment. As fans ourselves, we can see that the Seatfrog proposition is clearly loved by its users as shown by their thousands of industry-leading reviews. They’ve got a fantastic team with a great product and global potential. We’re incredibly excited to be backing Iain and Dirk in their next stage of growth with our ‘more than money’ support.”
The Seatfrog app is available to download on both Apple and Android devices.