Before the pandemic, London tradespeople were forced to deal with their last mile deliveries differently. With a Seed round worth £2.1 million, Snap It changed everything by saving time, money and energy in the process.
The venture round was initiated and led by ActivumSG Ventures. Financing for this round came from FOM Capital, LiFE Ventures and angel investors including Greg Marsh, David Haye and Oliver Stork.
Viktor Muhhin founded and manages the business Snap It, which shares insights on how the company started with a TFN reporter. Next on the agenda for Snap It is advertising.
A Service Inspired By The Pain Points Of Trade
Although Muhhin started his company as a plumber, he is not a traditional founder. More often than not, startups are founded by serial entrepreneurs or academics who monetize their research. Enrolling in London as a young man from Estonia to make money and exploregradually resulted in him working as a construction worker because of language barrier.
Muhhin found that his work as a tradesman developed into a successful business after observing several pain points. As he explains to us, his work with plumbers sparked his interest in mechanical engineering. Next, he became an expert in Gas Safe registred engineering to focus on improvements in the plumbers’ trade. From there he created the Snap It product line to address the issues he’d noticed.
Job managers usually require materials when telling employees they need to take a break. As my company grew, I had difficult sourcing material on demand. I used to drive around to pick materials up myself or book an Uber ride to deliver them.
After he realized that acquiring supplies during a job took most of his day, the inventor started researching further. He realized that typical tradespeople spent about 2 hours a day idle- time worth nearly $50,000 each year. This led him to develop the Snap It line of products.
Making A Difference For Tradespeople, Customers, And The Environment
Despite being partnered with a major courier service in London, Muhhin notes that Snap It’s last-mile deliveries aren’t comparable to other services. He emphasizes that the two are different than B2C deliveries that aren’t shared with any other companies. The availability of food items when needed is a luxury for consumers. However, the convenience of Snap It for tradespeople makes it a necessary tool in their jobs. This allows them to provide their customers with better services and increase their income.
He states that the businessIZEs offers larger orders than other last-mile delivery providers. For example, his company’s average order value is about 10 times larger than any other last-mile delivery provider.
Through an app powered by Snap It, tradespeople can order supplies from nearby merchants. These partners are provided with an iPad that allows them to issue responses and arrangements are made through Snap It’s API using white-label carriers. The model connects tradespeople with nearest shops and supporting merchants. Additional merchants are gathered through the platform to make national supply accessible. And independent merchants can connect to independent tradespeople through the platform.
Muhhin focused on the environmental benefits of his company when highlighting the advantages of his business model. He pointed out that their high retail density in London passed ScrewFix for first place. This number has continued to grow, and its impact has already been significant. By reducing the distance businesses have to deliver their goods, the carbon emissions associated with this can be mitigated. Furthermore, the calculation was made that businesses supplied by Muhhin have cut CO2 emissions on the order of Hyde Park’s annual output.
Growing In London And Beyond
According to Muhhin, the building and trades industry typically employs men instead of women. He plans to use the fund to expand his 15-person team and increase their service. The class of people incorporated into the Snap It project is diverse and incorporates knowledge from different countries and genders, as well as a variety of sexual orientations. The goal of Muhhin is to further expand the product by hiring additional staff.
The company’s plan is to develop Snap It as a platform for a variety of services besides package delivery. These include offsite administrations for businesses, such as housing associations and insurance companies. Muhhin plans to launch a second city prior to the release of their Series A, which is Birmingham. Another focus of development is the incorporation of more institutional users, such as the US government or multiple European countries.
The success of Snap It’s model relies on the environment, which supports tradespeople and small businesses. But consumers benefit the most from this model due to the fact that you have to arrange your whole life around tradespeople. Imagine if Snap It could deliver better customer service, more transparency and happier customers in a single visit. The company could achieve this if they were to drive better customer service.
