First Class Savings: Seatfrog Upgrades Rail Travel By Saving Brits More Than £27m.
First Class Savings: New travel app, SEATFROG upgrades rail travel £27M
Every year, 570 million first-class seats travel empty on trains across the top seven European countries, yet upgrading travel remains mythical - Seatfrog was born to solve this.
At a combined height of 13ft, upgrades have always been a topic for Iain Griffin and Dirk Stewart, but they co-founded Seatfrog after seeing the £billions in missed revenue by not filling those seats and the often expensive and byzantine experience for passengers.
Since launching in 2018, Seatfrog has made upgrading lightning fast and affordable for Brits across 1,200+ destinations - to the tune of £27 million in savings. All whilst helping Rail companies generate £Millions in revenue from unused seating. But they are only scratching the surface, named by Technation in the UK’s top 30 fastest growth companies (following in the footsteps of unicorns like revolut (£12bn), depop (£2bn)) with a 1,415% YOY increase in revenue and product virality like no other (Seatfrog spends zero on marketing), upgrades really is just the start.
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing for Seatfrog, after such incredible growth they saw their market decimated more than any category overnight by Covid. Dirk and Iain’s story to not only survive but thrive is an inspiring from the ashes mix of grit, resilience and entrepreneurial creativity. During lockdown, the business lost 97% of its revenue overnight and the founders made the difficult decision to cut 45% of their workforce. But the team focused - won more rail clients increasing supply by 260%, built a product that solves the biggest issue in Rail, flexibility for 1.2bn tickets, increased staff happiness scores and when the final lockdown lifted, Seatfrog rocketed past pre-Covid revenue in just 5 weeks.
Seatfrog is now on a mission to set the standard in experience and make rail work much better for Brits (58% are unhappy with current rail situations). Trains have negative connotations. They make you think of delays, cancellations, and overpriced tickets that leave you standing outside the toilets, unable to find a seat. The romance that once surrounded them has gone. The appeal is fading. The sector has trundled along, iterating vs innovating for too long, leaving travellers with nothing to get excited about. Until now.
And if they do their job right, Seatfrog has the ability to make a big sustainability impact - more happy customers traveling by train more often has a big impact on carbon emissions. And governments globally recognise this huge opportunity, with flight routes being reduced, €260bn being spent to triple the length of the existing high-speed rail network in Europe by 2030 and to drive a 40% growth of passengers in the next five years.
Backed by Octopus Ventures, one of Europes leading VC’s (£5bn funds under management, backers of Zoopla, DePop, Secret Escapes, Cazoo), with £15m funding to date and a hyper-growth business model - Seatfrog is on a mission to reinvent the way that we travel by train. It’s all about 2022 for Seatfrog, with a new app launching imminently giving Brits a much better way to travel by Rail, incredible growth is back and finally after decades of mediocrity, Brits have a challenger fighting their corner to make the journey in Rail amazing again, the Seatfrog journey really is just getting going.
www.seatfrog.com