Seatfrog

finnCap Group is delighted to announce it has advised the train travel platform, Seatfrog, on raising £6m from Pembroke VCT, Octopus Ventures and Praetura 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 preeminent pan-European choice for rail.

The deal is a key example of the strength of finnCap’s leading cross-sector offering, using both its consumer and technology expertise to advise on the funding for this technology driven consumer product. Successfully securing funding for a rail travel technology business during a time of train strikes and the cost-of-living crisis also demonstrates finnCap’s ability to deliver deals in challenging markets.

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%. To date, it has secured exclusive partnerships with sixteen major train operators covering over 3bn 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.

Zuleika Salter, Head of Private Growth Capital of finnCap, commented:

“Seatfrog is genius for completely transforming the process and experience of purchasing, amending or upgrading a train ticket. Their proprietary technology not only makes life cheaper, simpler and enjoyable for the train traveller, it is a no-brainer for operators too, driving additional revenue whilst greatly reducing the administrative time and expense of providing accessible customer choice. It is a joy to work with the very talented founders, Iain and Dirk, who have co-created this industry-changing solution.”