Close

Jump to:

  • Navigation
  • Content
  • Footer

Paperclip

Follow

Our award-winning university marketplaces enable thousands of students to buy and sell stuff on campus.

140%
 - 
Funded 15 Sep 2019
£300,000 target
£421,700 from 403 investors
More
Less

Business overview

Location Cardiff, United Kingdom
Social media
Website paperclip.co
Sectors SaaS/PaaS Digital Mixed B2B/B2C
Company number 09123171
Incorporation date 9 Jul 2014
More
Less

Investment summary

Type Equity
Valuation (pre-money) £4.3M
Equity offered 9.01%
Tax relief

EIS

  • Idea
  • Team
  • Updates
  • Investors 403
  • Discussion
  • Documents

Idea

Introduction

Paperclip is a leading provider of university marketplaces in the UK, and is raising up to £300k to deepen it's presence and aiming to onboard over 70% of UK universities before the end of 2020.

The longer-term plan is to take on the likes of Shpock, eBay, Gumtree and Craigslist by providing a secondhand marketplace that competes on fees, accessibility, and security.

We'll aim to do this by onboarding as many universities and corporate communities as possible over the next 12-24 months while introducing cross-pollination between marketplaces (ie. Oxford students selling to Cambridge students), before consolidating them all onto our open marketplace (ie. Oxford and Cambridge students selling to the rest of the world).

This means we would be effectively taking on incumbents from the top-down instead of from the bottom-up, by onboarding communities instead of individuals.

Intended impact

We believe that most students want a marketplace to buy, sell and swap together with other students at their university. In our view, the problem is that the vast majority of universities don’t have a good one. We feel this makes it difficult and expensive to buy and sell essential university items such as textbooks.

Substantial accomplishments to date

- Winner, best online retailer platform, Cardiff Life Awards 2018.

- Co-founders both awarded '35 under 35 business and professional men in Wales' by WalesOnline in 2018.

- Nominated for Welsh Startup of the Year, Innovative Welsh Startup of the Year 2017, and 3 regional awards in 2018.

- Onboarded 11 universities including UCL, Oxford and Cambridge, with thousands of students signed up between them.

- Onboarding first potential inbound international clients; ALU in Mauritius.

- Onboarded first corporate client, Dell EMC; providing them with a marketplace for staff to buy and sell together as part of our long-term enterprise sales plan.

- Agreed commercial terms with Just Eat and Student Beans to promote their brands via discounts and samples in 2018/19 academic year, along with other brands including Harry's, Cornerstone, Greedy Llama, Readly, and Sn-ap.

- Notable press mentions include LifeHacker, Express, Dave, and BBC Radio.

Monetisation strategy

Paperclip will be offering marketplaces to universities for free as part of a minimum-friction land grab. We aim to derive income from advertising partnerships and marketplace fees with a revenue share for each students' union.

PROMOTIONAL REVENUE: Promotional handouts such as special offers, discounts or product samples for between £1.50 and £22 per conversion; current partners are Just Eat and Giff Gaff.

MONTHLY SAAS: Upselling premium marketplace features (such as Android/iPhone app access) for a monthly subscription fee of up to £2,000 per month.

PLATFORM REVENUE: We aim to charge listing/fees for items, commission from areas such as lettings (student accommodation), services (such as tutoring), events and jobs advertised on the marketplace.

Use of proceeds

TEAM: The funds will allow the core team to continue functioning, along with ability to bring onboard interns for 6-12 months on the ESPA scheme (£500pm per intern) to help with sales and engagement. The firm has already made their key hires for 2019 as part of the wider investment round, bringing onboard an experienced product manager and a marketing coordinator.

SALES, MARKETING, GROWTH & ENGAGEMENT: Fund the marketing/engagement budget for the 2019/2020 academic year, ensuring that each new marketplace onboarded receives the appropriate level of engagement to grow organically.

'LIGHT' EXPANSION: Once 70% of UK universities are onboarded, some attention could be turned to the US; there are 109 registered universities in the UK but over 2,600 accredited universities in the United States.

Open an account to get access to the team members of Paperclip

Sign up

Already have an account? Log in

To comply with financial regulations, we can only show full campaign details to registered users.

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Share on:

Investing involves risks, including loss of capital, illiquidity, lack of dividends and dilution, and should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. Please read the Risk Warnings before investing. Investments should only be made by investors who understand these risks. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future.

This webpage has been approved as a financial promotion by Seedrs Limited ("Seedrs"), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It is not intended to be a promotion of any individual investment opportunity and is not an offer to the public. The summary information provided about investment opportunities on this webpage is intended solely to demonstrate the types of investments available on the Seedrs platform, and any investment decision should be made on the basis of the full campaign. Full campaigns are available to investors who have become authorised to invest on the Seedrs platform. All investment activities take place within the United Kingdom, and any person resident outside the United Kingdom should ensure that they are not subject to any local regulations before investing.

Seedrs does not make investment recommendations to you. No communications from Seedrs, through this website or any other medium, should be construed as an investment recommendation. Further, nothing on this website shall be considered an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security to any person in any jurisdiction to whom or in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful. Seedrs does not provide legal, financial or tax advice of any kind. If you have any questions with respect to legal, financial or tax matters relevant to your interactions with Seedrs, you should consult a professional adviser.

Tax Relief (SEIS)

This business is eligible for SEIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 50% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Tax Relief (EIS)

This business is eligible for EIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 30% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Valuation (pre-money)

Valuation rounded from £4,253,989

This is the fully-diluted pre-money valuation of the business (i.e. before the new investment comes in and including issued options and other equity interests). In contrast, the post-money valuation is based on inclusion of the new investment in the value.

It is calculated as the pre-money valuation plus the amount of new investment. e.g. If Company A is ascribed a pre-money valuation of £1,200,000 by prospective investors investing £300,000, its post-money valuation is £1,500,000.

Pitch type

There are 5 types of investment pitch available on Seedrs.

  • Equity
  • Convertible
  • Fund
  • Cohort
  • Secondary

Investing in a regular equity campaign is the simplest and most common way to invest in a startup. You decide which business you want to invest in, and if the campaign hits its funding target then you will become one of their shareholders. As the company becomes more valuable, so do your shares; allowing you the opportunity to share in the future success of the business.

Learn more about pitch type on Seedrs

Equity Offered

The equity offered is the percentage of the company’s shares being issued in return for the amount of investment raised.

When the amount raised is less than 100%, the equity offered is based on the target raise. Once the company has raised over 100% it is based on the total raised.

In some scenarios, entrepreneurs may accept additional direct investment after closing their Seedrs campaign. Provided this is within 6 months of the closing and on the same terms, we do not typically offer pre-emption rights on that extra investment (where you have the opportunity to invest again to maintain your percentage shareholding).

Learn more about investing and pre-emption rights.

Warning

You are following a link outside of www.seedrs.com.

None of the information in constitutes part of the campaign and it has not been approved or reviewed by Seedrs.

ContinueCancel