Snackpass, a food pickup app that offers a loyalty rewards program that functions something like a social media platform, raised $21 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz this month. Now the service plans to continue its growth from a startup.

"Our plan is to get to 100 campuses over the next two years," said CEO Kevin Tan, who founded the company with fellow Yale University student, COO Jamie Marshall, and entrepreneur Jonathan Cameron, the head of sales. "The ultimate goal is to expand outside of college campuses and into cities."

According to Snackpass, the app is currently available on 11 college campuses, where it encourages users to order food online for pickup and offers a unique rewards program where points accumulated by student purchasers can be shared with other users of the app. That combination that appears to be driving user loyalty in college markets.

"One of the most striking things is the penetration on each campus. So at Yale and Brown we're at over at 80 percent, or even at 90 percent, penetration of the student body," Tan said. "It's very high frequency, so the average customer orders two and a half times a week. But some of the top customers use it almost every day or multiple times a day."

Although Snackpass has yet to land any meal plan partnerships with colleges and universities, the app does allow parents to add funds to students’ accounts.

"At the moment, we have a meal plan product where parents can load money onto their kids' accounts," he said. "This actually came about because some parents would message in and say: How do we add money to our kids' Snackpass account? And so we said it might be a good idea to build it."

Tan also touted the pickup model and the lack of high overhead that allows it to compete against the bigger players in the space, like Uber Eats. Along with the relative efficiency, Snackpass manages to be an add-on benefit for restaurants that might use it, stacked with other food app services, to connect with even more customers.

And the social aspect of the app also, apparently, allows customers to connect to other customers, with an activity feed similar to Venmo and the ability to send reward points to others.

"Every time you buy a coffee or taco, I might get a reward point… but I also get to send a friend a reward point as well," he said. "Some of our users have even said it's a low-key way to flirt."

Share:
More In Business
Starbucks’ Change Flushes Out a Debate Over Public Restroom Access
Starbucks’ decision to restrict its restrooms to paying customers has flushed out a wider problem: a patchwork of restroom use policies that varies by state and city. Starbucks announced last week a new code of conduct that says people need to make a purchase if they want to hang out or use the restroom. The coffee chain's policy change for bathroom privileges has left Americans confused and divided over who gets to go and when. The American Restroom Association, a public toilet advocacy group, was among the critics. Rules about restroom access in restaurants vary by state, city and county. The National Retail Federation says private businesses have a right to limit restroom use.
Trump Highlights Partnership Investing $500 Billion in AI
President Donald Trump is talking up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. The new entity, Stargate, will start building out data centers and the electricity generation needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House. The initial investment is expected to be $100 billion and could reach five times that sum. While Trump has seized on similar announcements to show that his presidency is boosting the economy, there were already expectations of a massive buildout of data centers and electricity plants needed for the development of AI.
Load More