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Pre-emption

Wedding Planner

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Revolutionising the wedding industry. A tool saving couples time and stress when planning their big day.

View more details of this business.
166%
 - 
Funded 5 Jan 2017
£100,000 target
£169,400 from 157 investors
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Business overview

Location London, United Kingdom
Social media
Website www.weddingplanner.co.uk
Sectors Home & Personal Mixed Digital/Non-Digital B2C
Company number 08012857
Incorporation date 30 Mar 2012
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Investment summary

Type Equity
Valuation (pre-money) £2M
Equity offered 7.85%
Tax relief

EIS

  • Idea
  • Market
  • Team
  • Updates
  • Investors 157
  • Discussion
  • Documents

Fundraising history on Seedrs

  • Pitch closing date
    Funding round
    Raised
    Pre-money valuation
    Equity offered
    Equity
    Investors
  • 4 Apr 2019
    £26,752
    £1,757,344
    1.50%
    19
    View pitch
  • 17 May 2018
    £35,344
    £1,846,272
    1.88%
    19
    View pitch
  • 5 Jan 2017
    £166,980
    £1,960,200
    7.85%
    157
    View pitch
  • 20 May 2016
    £763
    £1,075,900
    0.07%
    8
    View pitch
  • 15 Oct 2015
    £51,332
    £680,281
    7.02%
    24
    View pitch
  • 5 Mar 2015
    £100,330
    £700,000
    12.54%
    124
    View pitch
View more details of this business.

Idea

Introduction

Wedding Planner aims to offer a new approach to wedding planning for couples, based on the successful model of the “comparison site” tailored to the wedding industry.

Wedding Planner is the only wedding platform currently partnered with John Lewis.

Focused around ease of use and transparency, the site has 3 key components. Our free, fully customisable online planning tools provide couples with tools they need to plan their wedding. We publish fresh content and inspiration, including expert advice and latest tips and trends. Our smart supplier search functionality enables couples to find suppliers and see their prices and availability along with reviews and locations.

Wedding Planner is the only tech platform in the world, as far as we are aware, offering this quality of search functionality. All 3 elements combined ensure this site is particularly attractive for couples, as it is completely free for them to use.

Intended impact

Technology has dramatically changed the way consumers react with service providers, but we've found that the wedding industry has been slow to embrace the change. Most couples planning their weddings are looking for ways to save time, find information and get answers with ease at the click of a button and on the move.

Given the fragmentation of the wedding supplier industry, it is hard for couples to see the range of available services and suppliers, and to compare based on values that are important to them, be it price, availability, location, style or previous recommendation.

For suppliers, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd and to present their services in the best way. With marketing budgets often tight, the site helps suppliers manage their marketing budget more effectively.
Wedding Planner is designed to provide a complete platform from discovery to booking, saving time and stress for couples.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Substantial accomplishments in last 12 months:

25,000+ visitors to the website every month.

15,000+ registered couples on the Wedding Planner platform.

15,000+ engaged social media followers.

2,500+ revenue generating actions (clicks and enquiries) per month.

1,250+ registered suppliers across Great Britain.

Successful acquisition and integration of WeddingPlanner.co.uk and successful rebranding to "Wedding Planner" from "World of Wedmin".

Subsequent to selection as 1 of the 5 JLab Accelerator 2016 cadre, John Lewis Group has confirmed that it wishes to continue to work with WeddingPlanner.

Wedding Planner has raised +/-£190,000 in equity on and off Seedrs in three funding rounds in the last 20 months.

Successful acquisition and integration of WeddingPlanner.co.uk and successful rebranding from ‘World of Wedmin’.

Partnership with John Lewis & John Lewis Gift List.

Monetisation strategy

Suppliers (other than venues) are currently charged an average of £4.50 for every valid enquiry they receive and £0.99 for every URL click-through.

Venues are charged, typically, £150 a year for their profile. The number of venues per county is carefully monitored to ensure we promote those venues we feel are particularly special in each county.

Wedding Planner also generates revenue through advertising on our popular "Inspiration Section".

We anticipate income from Gift List sign-ups through Wedding Planner, as well as commission from Gift List sales.

The proposed new booking system is expected to deliver substantial additional revenue in the mid-term by significantly enhancing the pull through of the site from first viewings through to enquiries and transactions. It will ultimately enable the business to move towards a model whereby it takes a percentage of the final booking revenues.

Use of proceeds

• Preliminary product development – Booking system
• Mobile – Enhance mobile offering
• Investment in our SEO to improve our search engine ranking
• Preliminary development of CRM and workflow tool for Suppliers
• Wedding Planner App for planning/booking on-the-go
• Investment in our branding – to ensure we are the leading wedding platform in the UK
• Investment in our Pay-per-click advertising to increase both our couples’ and supplier bases
• Increasing our advertising and PR footprint
• Extension of key skills within the team to include in-house SEO, Design and Product Development.
• Hiring staff to support product development, supplier sign up, marketing & customer service

Market

Target market

The UK wedding market is estimated at £10bn per annum and growing. The market can be further subdivided into the "user" (couple) and the “supplier” (provider of wedding services). For the platform to be a success, it requires both sides to be engaged with the website.

Weddings are increasingly permeating popular culture as demonstrated by the increased coverage of celebrity weddings via mainstream publications such as OK! and Hello!. The rise in popularity too of wedding focused reality TV shows such as Don't Tell The Bride and Four Weddings firmly entrenches weddings in public consciousness.

Characteristics of target market

The UK wedding industry is a sizeable and growing market. In 2012, the provisional number of marriages in England and Wales increased by 5.3% to 262,240, from 249,133 in 2011. The greatest number of marriages was for men and women aged 25 to 29. The market size in the UK was estimated at approximately £10bn in 2011.

According to MoneySavingExpert, the average UK wedding spend (by the wedding couple) = £20,500.

We estimate that a typical wedding couple may contract with between 10-20 suppliers across varying categories.

Marketing strategy

Wedding Planner aims to bring the wedding planning journey to life and ensure the online planning experience is just as fun, enjoyable and hopefully as seamless as the actual wedding day. The platform reaches its target audience though the free, customisable planning tools. Ranked highly on Google for key search terms including “wedding planner” and “wedding planning,” Wedding Planner receives over 40 new users signing up every day to plan their weddings. In this way, we are able to engage with these couples right at the start of their journey and guide them through the whole planning process with the online tools they need, expert advice, tips and inspiration, and smart supplier recommendations.

Other than our strong search rankings in certain categories, our recent partnership with John Lewis plays a key role in helping us reach our target audience and adds a known brand to our platform. We plan to develop this partnership further by aligning the Wedding Planner and John Lewis gift list user journeys for registered customers to provide an enhanced customer experience.

We also acquire new users through focused Google Adwords campaigns, by building our brand and community on social media, and through PR. We have been featured in The Telegraph, The Sun, The Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan to name a few.

Competition strategy

Unique search capability based on price and availability, in addition to the recommendation engine and leading planning tools, differentiates Wedding Planner from traditional wedding directories in our opinion.

For suppliers, we believe we offer a more attractive payment model compared to the traditional monthly/annual subscription of our competitors.

We are partnered with John Lewis, and partnering with one of the largest brands in the Gift List space adds reassurance and trust to the Wedding Planner brand.

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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 £1,960,200

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.

The investee business is responsible for setting its own valuation, it has not been prescribed by Seedrs.

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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