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Sophia Technologies

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Sophia.app is an on-demand marketplace for the private tuition industry

189%
 - 
Funded 14 Aug 2020
£300,000 target
£581,580 from 367 investors
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Business overview

Location London, United Kingdom
Social media
Website www.sophia.app
Sectors Home & Personal Digital B2C
Company number 11541298
Incorporation date 29 Aug 2018
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Investment summary

Type Equity
Valuation (pre-money) £2M
Equity offered 22.10%
Tax relief

EIS

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Business highlights

  • 100% Repeat Booking Rate and 5 Star Tutor Reviews
  • Founded by Educational Leaders
  • Tutors fully vetted against highest standards of safe recruitment
  • 3 specially curated educational programme's designed and running
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Key features

  • Secondary Market
  • Seedrs nominee min. £10.74 +
  • Direct investment min. £25,000.00 +
  • Pay by Bank payments not accepted

Idea

Introduction

SOPHIA is an EdTech disruptor, bringing on-demand, flexible working to the £6bn UK tuition industry.

Founded by an Independent school Head Teacher and run by a team of educational leaders with decades of experience in the industry, we promote confidence and convenience without compromising on safety or quality of education.

Tutors are fully vetted by the education team against the highest standards in safeguarding and safer recruitment. Sessions are booked via an app and are delivered online, at home or anywhere the client finds convenient.

Substantial accomplishments to date

August 2019

- Sophia opens to tutors and begins the on boarding process (to date over 1400 applications received).

December 2019

- Sophia Tutor app is launched, 100 tutors are fully verified and ready to download the app and finalise their application.

- Sophia receives 2 Nominations at Education Investor Awards 2019 (Private Tuition & Market Entrant)

March 2020

- Sophia Client app is soft launched and tutors begin working face-to-face (pre-lockdown).

April 2020

- COVID hits and tutoring seamlessly moves online, clients booking sessions receive a weblink and learning continues as normal.

- Successful white labelling into China via local partner kicks off (88hrs of tutoring sold into China to date).

- SophiaX is launched, an online classroom based learning where parents can book classes with an extra-curricular focus.

- Virtual School is launched, providing parents with a home schooling alternative during COVID-19 and beyond.

June 2020

- Launch of SophiaX virtual summer camps, a 6 week programme of learning with clients signing up from UK, UAE, Qatar and Moscow.

Other Notable Achievements:

- 100% repeat booking rate (as of June 1st) - every client or parent has booked more than once.

- Working towards accreditation with U.K. Department of Education.

- 100% 5 Star reviews for tutors (based on over 300 sessions, correct as of June 1st)
Widespread media coverage (Telegraph, iNews, TechRound, OpenGov, Just Entrepreneurs, Channel5 News).

Monetisation strategy

1) Face-to-face & online Tuition:

Clients pay Sophia one of 3 rates based on the tier of tutor.

Sophia takes a fixed % commission when the session is booked and pays the remainder to tutors.

Sophia covers variable costs including 'gig-economy' insurance (via a partnership with Tapoly), payment processing fees (partnership with stripe) and retains gross profit of 16.4% per average session:

2) Virtual School - sessions are run daily and cover core curriculum across age groups from KS1 to GCSE. Up to 3 parents can book into a single session, parents get to select subject but not the specific time or tutors. Classes get booked up weeks in advance and this cross pollenates into clients booking specific tutors for one-to-one sessions via the app.

3) SophiaX - a wide variety of extra-curricular courses (Book club, Harry Potter and his World, Minecraft coding, Debating, Mathematical Art, Coding a Lego Maze), SophiaX feeds kid’s curiosity and elevates their learning with a variety of real time online classes.

Use of proceeds

The proceeds will be used to help fund our strong and continuing journey and to provide the cash runway to continue scaling.

The vast majority of the raise is focussed on Technological Development and Customer Acquisition & Retention:

1) Tech Development

User experience is key, Sophia puts a huge focus on education quality but the app also has to be quick, stable and easy to use. As our client base grows, we want our infrastructure will grow in order to be able to efficiently handle exponential increase in traffic.

2) Customer Acquisition & Retention

Sophia will look to aggressively acquire customers in order to harness the network effect. Clients will be predominantly acquired online via PPC and paid referral.

Key information

Outstanding Loans

The company has the following outstanding loans:

1) £50,000 loan from NatWest at an interest rate of 2.5% per annum. The loan is to be repaid 72 months after the loan is drawn down, which is May 2026.

2) £100,000 Director’s loan with no interest rate. The loan is to be fully repaid on event of default or the repayment date. The repayment date being 28 days from the Lender making a written demand for repayment. This loan commenced on 25th February 2020.

3) £100,000 Director’s loan with no interest rate. The loan is to be fully repaid on event of default or the repayment date. The repayment date being 28 days from the Lender making a written demand for repayment. This loan commenced on 4th November 2019.

4) £100,000 Director’s loan with no interest rate. The loan is to be fully repaid on event of default or the repayment date. The repayment date being 28 days from the Lender making a written demand for repayment. This loan commenced on 3rd June 2019.

5) £100,000 Director’s loan with no interest rate. The loan is to be fully repaid on event of default or the repayment date. The repayment date being 28 days from the Lender making a written demand for repayment. This loan commenced on 13th December 2018.

The funds raised from this investment round will not be used to repay these loans.

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

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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

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 £2,005,516

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.

Seedrs nominee

This shows if you are able to choose, when making an investment, that you be represented by, and your shareholding be managed by, the Seedrs nominee.

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Custodian

If you invest in this Campaign, Seedrs will act as Custodian rather than provide our standard nominee service. This is due to the fact that the business is not directly involved in the share sale and Seedrs will not benefit from any rights under a shareholder agreement. As a result, Seedrs will handle administrative tasks as we do normally, but you will not have information or voting rights, updates from the business, preemption on future fundraising, or ongoing support about business trading activity.

Learn more about Custodian here

Secondary market

This shows if the business has opted-in or opted-out of allowing its shares to be bought and sold on the secondary market.

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Direct investment

This is an option to invest and hold shares 'directly' in the company (rather than via the Seedrs Nominee). This option is only available to those investing over the threshold amount, which is determined by the fundraising company.

If you choose to hold your shares directly, you will be responsible for any contractual or administrative arrangements with the company you are investing in.

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Payment options

We are not able to accept card payments for investments into this sector. You can pay for your investment by creating a bank transfer, using funds in your investment account or create a Pay by Bank payment. Your investment will only be completed once the funds have reached our account.

Business Involvement

This Campaign offers shares for sale in business that is not directly involved in this Campaign or the sale. As a result, the Campaign and post-investment experience, including investor rights, will differ from a business-led campaign on Seedrs. Most notably, the business will not engage with investors in the discussion forums both during and after the sale or provide any updates to investors.

Learn more here

Payment options

We are not able to accept Pay by Bank payments for investments into this sector. You can pay for your investment with a card payment, by creating a bank transfer or by using funds in your investment account. Your investment will only be completed once the funds have reached our account.

Drawdowns

This campaign offers the ability to pay for an investment by drawdowns.

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