Crowdfunding by seatfrog. What do you think?

[jrh2254]

I see that seatfrog has raised £2,380,406 to "supercharge our product roadmap for 2021/22 and expansion across Europe, delivering on our mission to build a better future for rail, for good."
I did not invest as I thought no other European country has a diabolical train ticket system like the UK, so could not see the same seatfrog model working in European countries.
What do others think and did you invest?

Seatfrog raised investment - May 2021.

Seatfrog has made upgrading to First Class lightning fast to

www.crowdcube.com

We’ve already reinvented upgrading your seat for over 340,000 happy customers – a historically complicated and expensive experience, now affordable and lightning fast to over 560 destinations.

But we’re not stopping there - we’re leading the charge to build a better future for passengers and the rail companies that carry them.

We are raising to supercharge our product roadmap for 2021/22 and expansion across Europe, delivering on our mission to build a better future for rail, for good.

 

[takno]

I see that seatfrog has raised £2,380,406 to "supercharge our product roadmap for 2021/22 and expansion across Europe, delivering on our mission to build a better future for rail, for good."
I did not invest as I thought no other European country has a diabolical train ticket system like the UK, so could not see the same seatfrog model working in European countries.
What do others think and did you invest?

Seatfrog raised investment - May 2021.

Seatfrog has made upgrading to First Class lightning fast to

www.crowdcube.com

To be clear, the following is just my reasoning on why I wouldn't invest. I don't know the ticketing industry that well and could easily be way off the mark.

It looks like Seatfrog had a good investment story in early 2020 based on rapid growth across various UK TOCs, but lockdown took hold before they could actually get to market. I'd guess they've taken 750k from existing investors to bridge them over lockdown, and I'm not sure whether this round is really about opening up new markets or just avoiding lay-offs. Any small supplier to TOCs will be viewing GBR as a massive potential threat more than an opportunity, and the product they have could pretty easily be replaced by small additions to existing retail platforms. I'd question whether customers in the rapidly-improving world of UK ticket-retailing really want separate third-party app, rather than wanting to upgrade or swap tickets on the site they purchased from.

If 340k customers is the launchpad for 100x growth then a £1k per customer pre-money valuation would be fair, but I doubt it is. Excluding walk-up, smartcard and The total addressable market for UK rail travel just isn't that large, and the portion of it willing to faff around with a third party app just to chisel out a cheap upgrade is even smaller.

 

[gingerheid]

One for people that like taking risks - seems like an almost casino like gamble! The idea itself may be sound, but it doesn't come across as that valuable given that the best way of implementing it might be through operator apps.

 

[philthetube]

It strikes me that current Avanti policy is going to reduce their income, if others follow suit this makes it a far worse proposition than it initially looked.