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University Compare

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A Course Comparison website for UK Higher Education. Over 27,000 Courses across 265 institutes.

235%
 - 
Funded 8 Oct 2015
£75,002 target
£177,869 from 120 investors
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Business overview

Location Chelmsford, United Kingdom
Social media
Website universitycompare.com
Sectors Content & Information Digital Mixed B2B/B2C
Company number 08108791
Incorporation date 10 Jun 2012
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Investment summary

Type Equity
Valuation (pre-money) £562.8K
Equity offered 23.91%
Tax relief

EIS

  • Idea
  • Market
  • Team
  • Updates
  • Investors 120
  • Discussion
  • Documents

Idea

Introduction

University Compare offers an unbiased service to students while providing a digital platform for universities to advertise directly to their chosen demographic.

University Compare offers a subscription model for universities to connect with students that are looking study at higher education.

Offering a number of services that reflect the year-long university application process from:

- Annual profiles
- Open day exposure
- Clearing/adjustment
- Social media exposure

Intended impact

Students today are unsure of the benefits of applying to university and are not aware of the opportunities available for them. Ofsted also announced that 55% of all students struggle to find external support outside of their school.

Regardless of these difficulties that students face throughout their applications and despite the increase in tuition fees that the conservatives introduced in 2012, university applications have risen by 38% over the last 8 years, with over 3.3M university applications being processed in 2015 and this figure is only set to rise even further.

University Compare addresses the need for a digital market place for institutes to target potential students while helping students identify the right university and course for them.

We provide statistics on all 27,000 courses, such as; employment rates, average graduate salaries, student satisfaction and even the cost of a pint at your local bar, we're able to offer a realistic perspective on the university experience. University Compare specialises in gaining reviews from former and current students who share their experiences online, they give a great insight into university life, similar to the reviews on TripAdvisor.

Substantial accomplishments to date

University Compare have already received over 100K SEIS funding over the past 30 months.

University Compare was nominated for:
- Best Newcomer 2014 by the prestigious Education Investor.
- Owen O'Neill was nominated for Essex Entrepreneur 2015.


Even though University Compare are the challenger brand, we believe we still have the strongest social network following amongst all of our current competitors, our social following across a number of channels is growing at an exponential of 50% month-on-month.

Monetisation strategy

University Compare sells marketing space to universities so they can connect with students who are looking to study at Higher Education. We’re able to increase brand awareness, student referrals and student feedback whilst maintaining a very low customer acquisition cost.

With the placement of targeted advertisements alongside our 4500+ opted-in sixth-form careers advisors, we're able to increase student referrals and brand impressions amongst influencers (teachers), giving the ability to affect a student's choice in what they choose to study at higher education.

University Compare showcases 265 UK institutions and we will be looking to expand into Europe (569 clients) in 2016 with the potential to expand further into America and Canada (4,800 clients) in 2019.

University Compare has huge potential to create alternative revenue streams from Mobile App adverts to impression based adverts located on our website (which we currently doesn't utilise).

NB: The data used for this graph is from University Compare's internal analysis and has not been independently verified.

Use of proceeds

University Compare is already trading and the money raised via Seedrs will used to scale the company and target a further 126 Further education colleges that have not been targeted yet.

The use of the funds raised will allow us to double our team in size while creating more sophisticated advertisements to increase the digital awareness of the brand.

With the additional EIS investment, within 4 years we'd expect to build a business in the UK undergraduate and EU market, with possible expansion into America an Canada in late 2019.

Predicted costs over the next two years:

Salaries:
Y1: 79k
Y2: 96k

Product/Tech:
Y1: 5k
Y2: 9k

Marketing:
Y1: 25k
Y2: 40k

G&A:
Y1: 10k
Y2: 14k

Market

Target market

University Compare's brand is split via a B2C service that sells B2B products.

Targeting prospective students in the youth market that range from the ages of 16-24 who are looking to study in Higher Education.

As the business progresses, so will our client database of prospective students and current undergraduates. This will allow us to extend our target market to postgraduate study as we will have curated data from previous years. A postgraduate service will allow us to increase the number of our orders with existing clients that are already subscribed with our service.

Our Target market extends into Europe in 2016/17 increasing our brand awareness amongst European students.

Characteristics of target market

Despite the increase in tuition fees in 2012, university applications have rose by 38% over the last 8 years. In 2015, over 3.3M university applications have been processed from nearly 600,000 applicants and this figure is only set to increase even further.

The UK Higher Education market is worth a staggering £5.1bn with universities spending in excess of £100M a year to acquire students. It is believed this figure will consistently grow by 20% each year. The digital revolution has begun and more universities are now shifting their traditional spend on print media and replacing it with digital marketing. We expect the majority of universities will have a vast digital presence come 2017 and we’ll be right at the forefront of this digital revolution.

The HE industry mildly changes on an annual basis, our excellent relationship with schools creates the opportunity to acquire these students every year. Our ever-growing 4500 subscriber list of careers advisers (influencers) allows us to stay connected with students.

Marketing strategy

University Compare reaches it's current demographic through organic traffic, direct traffic, referrals and social media.

University Compare's organic traffic has steadily increased over recent years and is now the back-bone of high quality traffic.

University Compare has implemented a scalable social traffic strategy over the past 6 months which has catapulted all areas of external traffic. By connecting with students across Social Media we are able to influence the youth market, increase iPhone App installs along with the value of our sharable content and visits to the site.

Competition strategy

We are currently smashing our competitors social media activity significantly. The most established competitor is currently valued at £35m.

Our social media activity allows us to connect to students in ways that our competitors are not able too and this helps clients distinguish our services amongst our competitors.

In terms of accessibility of our service, we are the only course comparison website to have an iPhone App which continuously generates circa 500 organic downloads per month without paid advertising.

Our branding has been carefully developed to engage teenagers and young adults, as well as a brand they can relate to. We are fun but professional and helpful. Our branding is considerably stronger than our competitors.

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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 £562,771

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.

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

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