Groupon rival Wriggle raises £500,000 to seize market share in London

The last-minute deals app has proved a hit with young people seeking up-and-coming eateries

Mother Clucker in East London, which serves tea-brined, buttermilk-soaked fried chicken, uses Wriggle to draw in new customers

App start-up Wriggle, which aims to get more people eating out with small independent restaurants, has secured £300,000 of a new £500,000 funding round as it seeks to expand into 20 new locations.

The business, which was founded in 2014 by former corporate lawyer Rob Hall, acts as a restaurant discovery tool and offers users same-day discounts to fill excess capacity.

Meals from burgers to noodle soup to crepes are purchased in the app, typically at a discount of around 20pc, and Wriggle takes a 9.5pc cut of the sale.

“We help businesses find customers when they need them,” said Mr Hall, insisting that his new business is very different to discount giant Groupon.

The discounts don’t reach Groupon levels, which can cause businesses to lose money,” he claims. “We’re converting people who would buy a Tesco sandwich or go home and make dinner to a spontaneous customer.

“Most of our businesses wouldn’t touch Groupon because it’s seen as a low-value offer,” he adds.

Wriggle founder Rob Hall (left) with Smokey Bandit Burgers founder Nicolas Himonas (right), who uses the app to fill his Shoreditch High Street eatery

Wriggle founder Rob Hall (left) with Smokey Bandit Burgers founder Nicolas Himonas (right), who uses the app to fill his Shoreditch High Street eatery

Wriggle now has 250 eateries on its books across London and Bristol and the app has generated 25,000 downloads to date, with 8,000 monthly users.

The £500,000 in new growth capital, which is being raised from angel investors Dominic Keen, founder of mobile technology company MoPowered, Oliver Pawle from the New Entrepreneurs Foundation, William Fewen, who was a founding shareholder in Sporting Index, alongside an undisclosed venture capital fund, will allow the business to target other cities that fit its target demographics.

Wriggle requires a dense student population, a significant number of young professionals and a thriving independent restaurant scene to work effectively. “We’re looking at places like Bath, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and Brighton,” Mr Hall said.

In 2014, Wriggle raised £160,000 from 200 investors on crowdfunding platform Seedrs, in exchange for 15pc of the company. The business was previously funded by Mr Hall’s savings.

The app first launched in Bristol, where Mr Hall attended university. “There are a lot of independent eateries there,” says the 29-year-old entrepreneur, who has personally eaten at 80pc of the Bristol restaurants listed on Wriggle. “We now have five Bristol businesses approaching us each week.”

It has been more challenging to achieve traction in London because of the size of the market. “We get a handful of approaches per month,” said Mr Hall.

The business, which is currently processing 1,000 transactions each month, generating 95p per sale, will break even once it reaches 20 locations, Hall claims. “It’s still very early days for us,” he says. “The challenge is to scale.”

Bristol-based Bagel Boy sold 60 extra bagels by using the Wriggle app earlier this year, generating an additional £260 in revenue. It has launched a total of 22 offers with the start-up, which pulled in an extra £5,014 in turnover, at a cost of £401.12 in Wriggle commissions.

Bagel with poppy seeds on
Eating products that contain poppy seeds has been known to cause false positive drug results Credit: ALAMY

When Bagel Boy needs to sell leftover bagels, it uses Wriggle to offer a last-minute discount

The average size of a Wriggle purchase is £10. While meals are paid for in advance, drinks and puddings allow eateries to upsell customer by an average of £4.50 per head.

Some 60pc of Wriggle’s eateries use the app every week, while 30pc log discounts once a month, and the balance only use the app occasionally.

The name Wriggle was taken from the phrase “get a wriggle on” meaning “hurry up” and “go out”. “We’re the opposite of a Just East or Deliveroo, which wants people to go home and order takeaway, we want you to go out,” says Hall.

“In the long-term, there’s a lot of potential in the last-minute capacity niche. We could extend the brand anywhere there’s a perishable asset.”