Snackpass, the social e-commerce platform for restaurants, announced a $70 million Series B funding round led by Craft Ventures. Other contributors include Andreessen Horowitz, which led the company’s $21 million Series A funding round, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator. More than 500,000 people across 13 markets, primarily college towns, use Snackpass to order ahead at their favorite restaurants and get rewards and deals with friends. A host of celebrities and other notable venture capitalists also invested including:
- AirAngels, the Airbnb alumni investor syndicate
- Bastian Lehmann, Founder/CEO of Postmates
- David Grutman, hospitality entrepreneur
- Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors
- Gaingels
- HartBeat Ventures, Kevin Hart’s venture fund
- Jonas Brothers, Musicians
- Pags Group, the family office of the Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca
- Shrug Capital
- Steve Aoki, DJ, record producer, music programmer, and philanthropist
- Turner Novak of Banana Capital
- William Barnes of Moving Capital, the Uber alumni investor syndicate
“In building a social experience around food through shared rewards, gifting, and a social activity feed, Snackpass has created a dynamic and attractive restaurant ordering system,” says Bryan Rosenblatt, partner, Craft Ventures. “The growth of its marketplace and virality of the product coupled with Snackpass’ outstanding team and vision, make it the ultimate solution for consumers and businesses alike. We are thrilled to help take Snackpass to the next level with this latest round of funding.”
Snackpass achieves an average 80 percent adoption rate whenever it debuts on a new campus. The company aims to leverage this appeal by launching in cities where many students move after graduation. Students and young professionals connect directly with Snackpass because of the social component, but offering the best deals and pickup convenience in the industry compels any consumer to use the app.
“Growing our business by first expanding to a variety of college towns was a natural progression for Snackpass following the creation and initial launch of the platform at Yale four years ago,” says Kevin Tan, co-founder and CEO of Snackpass. “Now that we have a proven model for success and backing from these established investors, we look forward to bringing Snackpass to larger metropolitan areas where we can engage even more restaurants looking to build their following and brand without losing economics to third-party platforms.”
Snackpass was founded in 2017 by Tan and Jamie Marshall and has raised more than $25 million in previous rounds of fundraising. Snackpass restaurants benefit from commissions as low as 7 percent and a suite of services including:
- Online ordering
- Self-service kiosks
- Digital menus
- Targeted marketing campaigns
- Built-in customer referral program
Users enjoy the unique loyalty program, which allows them to earn points and unlock discounts and free food and drinks from their favorite restaurants. One of the most compelling aspects of Snackpass, however, is its ability to connect: Users can see what their friends are ordering, send them gifts of points and food, and even order together as a group.
Snackpass plans to use the funding primarily to grow its team, specifically its engineering and sales divisions, and expand beyond initial target markets of college towns to bigger cities including New York City, Los Angeles, D.C., Austin, Miami, San Francisco, and Chicago. Existing markets including New Haven, CT; Ann Arbor, MI; and Berkeley, CA will receive additional resources and on-the-ground support.
