BaBash
99 913 € (200%)
of 49 938 - 99 877 € goal funded
281 € minimum investment
Quick Pitch
When you think of ordering food, you think of Wolt. When you think of ordering a taxi, Bolt comes to mind. When you think of night-outs and having a good time, you think of BaBash. BaBash is a unified platform for nightlife venues and events that aims to change the culture of night-outs through an innovative mobile application. With BaBash customers don’t have to stand in queues and lines anymore - in just a couple of clicks they can place contactless orders and get them delivered to the table or counter. They can see all upcoming events and venues in the app, purchase tickets and table services, and push notifications will let them know if something exciting is happening in their city, based on their previous habits and experience.
BaBash app is available for Android and iPhone devices. As of today, we have more than 2,500 users and 195+ prospect venues added in the Baltics. We also purchased 2013 Seedcamp winning guest-management system GateMe that is used by many venues and event organizers such as Studio, Venus, Vabank, Orangetime Events, Elamusstuudio, and many others. Thanks to that purchase, we gained access to GateMe's 30 000+ users, 1600+ venue leads, and ~€2000 MRR monthly recurring revenue (prior to covid).
The aim of this investment round is to accelerate sales and marketing on a grand scale in both Estonia and the Baltics, further product development, and hiring new team members for sales and marketing.
Problem & Solution
In terms of functionality and innovation, the entertainment and night-out landscape is still the same as it was at the beginning of the 21st century - customers still have to waste their time waiting in lines at the entrance, wardrobe, or bar counter, visit several different websites to get information about events and then to purchase tickets for them and so on. Some updates, such as QR tickets, have been implemented, but that's about it. Unified platforms that would make night-outs convenient and simple for both users and businesses have not been implemented yet.
BaBash is a unified platform for nightlife venues and events that aims to make night-outs and free weekends simple, convenient, and hassle-free!
The main problems that BaBash is on a mission solve:
Long queues and wasted time. While being out with friends and enjoying your free evening, waiting in lines is definitely the last thing you want to do. However, this is an inevitable part of the night-outs today. In just four clicks, customers can place contactless orders and get them delivered to the table or counter, without the need of standing in lines.
No unified platform. There’s no unified platform that would solve all the inconveniences that occur when going to an event or a nightlife venue. In BaBash everything is just a few clicks away - contactless ordering without queues and hassle, most popular nightlife venues and upcoming events, tickets and table services, push notifications will let you know if something exciting is happening in your city, based on the previous habits and experience you had.
Payments. Carrying cash when you’re at an event or in a nightlife venue with your friends can be quite an inconvenience - a longer payment process, you can lose the money and the coins you got as a change don’t bring any value either. With BaBash, you no longer have to deal with cash. To be honest, you don't even have to have a card with you - all payments are done conveniently through the application and the order statement will be sent to your email address.
Poor guest-list management system. Venue owners and event organizers are still using pen&paper or spreadsheets to manage their guests. It's time-consuming, chaotic, and not really reliable in a long run. BaBashs’ all-in-one guest-list management system GateMe has proven to be 4 times more efficient than spreadsheets or pen&paper when it comes to managing guests.
Product/Service Details
BaBash is your best friend if you want to go out and enjoy your free weekend or evening, but are having a hard time deciding where to go or what to do. In the application you will find all nightlife venues near you, you can see their location on the map, menus, opening hours and also book a table.
However, if the regular chilling is not appealing enough and you would like to do something more memorable, you can find all the upcoming and most popular events in the application, and purchase with just a couple of clicks tickets and table services.
But that's not all - BaBash is not another ticket selling software, it’s much more. Once you are with your friends in a club, bar, or at an event, you can order contactless your favorite drinks and snacks through the application and get them delivered to your table or counter after a confirmation message is received - all of this without queues.
Also, thanks to the geolocation, when traveling to another city or country, BaBash will also travel with you and will recommend the most suitable and perfect venues or events for you, based on your previous experience and habits. That’s how simple and convenient it is.
BaBash is also helpful for businesses. Venues and event organizers benefit from a faster service which leads to increased sales and revenue because bartenders can see all incoming orders at the same time and can serve them faster. BaBashs’ all-in-one guest-list management system has proven to be 4 times more efficient than spreadsheets or papers when it comes to managing your guests. Our CRM tools give an overview and analytics after the event has ended, helping organizers make their next events even more successful. Being the unified platform, businesses also benefit from better marketing and can communicate to their existing customers and attract a new client base more easily thanks to the in-app notifications, weekly newsletters, and top-sections inside the app.
How our customer application works:
Business model
We charge a 7% commission on each transaction and a €99 monthly subscription fee for the guest-list management system.
Venues benefit from a faster service which leads to increased sales and revenue, because bartenders can see all incoming orders at the same time and can serve them faster. The pen & paper check ins are in the past as well - BaBashs’ all in one guest-list management system has proven to be 4 times more efficient than spreadsheets or papers when it comes to managing your guests. Our CRM tools give an overview and analytics after the event has ended, helping organizers make their next events even more successful. Being the unified platform, businesses also benefit from better marketing and can communicate to their existing customers and attract new client base more easily thanks to the in-app notifications, weekly newsletters and top-sections inside the app. These are the main selling points to why businesses are charged €99/month.
Companies operating in similar fields are for example Xceed, a Spanish nightlife startup that has won the award of the fastest growing startup in Spain in 2018 and offers concierge solutions for the venues and ticket & table services for the customers, and Fever - a platform that allows customers to discover new and memorable events and experiences. Both startups have raised quite a bit of funds and it’s a promising sign that these applications have proven to be useful, and since there is no unified platform in Estonia that would provide an overview of everything that is happening in the nightlife and events landscape, BaBash would have the first-mover advantage. Also, Estonians have adopted Wolt and Bolt applications for ordering food and ride-hailing, which is further validation that since BaBash makes night outs as easy as the aforementioned start-ups ordering food and cars, we see a great opportunity to take over the Estonian market and expand to neighboring countries.
Also, since the covid-19 pandemic made functionalities like contactless ordering and keeping a distance essential, and also the fact that people haven’t had a chance to go out and party for a year, we believe there will be a spike in the event sector after the restrictions are lifted, and we are planning to take advantage of it with our all-in-one solution.
Market
The nightlife industry in Estonia is more than 80+ million and in the Baltics and Finland, our first expansion markets, more than 400 million euro business a year. BaBash offers a complete solution for nightlife venues and event organizers, from guest-list management to on-site contactless ordering, we're planning to get to more than €250 000 ARR (annual recurring revenue) run rate by the end of 2022 and to more than €500 000 by the end of 2023.
Our first expansion markets
BaBash's first foreign expansion markets are Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland. This is due to the fact that we have already established the necessary legal and marketing contacts through our partners in these countries. We work with Mareks Dainis (Ex da Bass), one of the most popular music producers in Latvia, who has performed in most Baltic nightclubs and hosted many events. Through him, the owners of many nightlife venues and event organizers are warm contacts, which makes it much easier to approach them and start working together. Also, thanks to Southwestern Advantage's summers in the US, the co-founders have many contacts in the Baltics, Poland, Slovakia, and other countries where the Southwestern Advantage summer internship program is active. Thanks to these connections we have the access to the necessary contacts to expand to other countries. As of today, more than 200 nightlife venues have been contacted and added to the free-trial package on BaBashs’ platform in the Baltics, and we’ve already started contacting them to join our paid version since restrictions are slowly being lifted and people are starting to go out again.
We also chose these countries as our first expansion markets because of geographical and regulatory reasons. Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland are Estonia's neighbors, which allows us to receive feedback in real-time and to monitor the growth process on the spot if needed, without having to spend a lot of time and resources on travel and logistics. Also, in terms of regulations, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland are very similar to Estonia, which is going to be really useful when it comes to the speed of expansion.
Traction & Accomplishments
Our accomplishments as of today :
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Purchased guest-list management startup GateMe and gained access to their 30 000+ users, 1600+ venue leads, and ~€2000 MRR (prior to covid)
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Startup Incubator program alumni
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Raised previously €65 000+ with a valuation of €918 250 from investors like Taavi Immato (Shanon), Aleksei Kolesnikov (Regional Manager at Bolt), Ranol Kaseväli (Southwestern Advantage) - we didn't raise valuation in this round, since covid restrictions aren't fully lifted and entertainment sector is not fully open
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Working iOS and Android applications + GateMe guest-list management system for admin
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M-O-M user growth for the past six months
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Active marketing campaigns and SM ads
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Doing active sales and are prepared for the event and entertainment sector reopening
How We’re Different
There is no unified platform for nightlife venues and events in use in Estonia that would have all the necessary information needed to help decide what to do with your free evening or weekend. The current process looks something like this: the event organizer or venue owner creates an event on Facebook that their potential user sees or doesn't see - depending on whether the user is following them or not. Then the user has to go from Facebook to the ticket selling website, insert their contact information, and only after that the ticket can be purchased. While being at an event, festival, or in a club, customers have to waste their time standing in lines at the entrance, wardrobe, and counter, yelling to place their orders, and so on Venues and event organizers are still losing money because of the bottleneck of serving one customer at a time, not knowing their customers well enough, and using pen & paper or spreadsheets to manage all their guests.
BaBash is a simple and convenient all-in-one platform that solves the problems of both, the users and venue owners/event organizers. Users can see all upcoming events and venues in the app, purchase tickets and table services, get notified about everything that’s happening in their city, and order contactless and without queues while they enjoy their free evenings or weekends. Venues benefit from a faster service that leads to increased sales and revenue, the guest-list management system that has proven to be four times faster than pen & paper, analytics, CRM, and much much more. With BaBash it’s a win-win opportunity for users and businesses alike.
In the landscape of events, our competitors in Estonia are companies offering ticket sales, such as Piletilevi, Fiienta, Ticketer, and others. Although the functionality of these companies allows them to sell tickets, they are not our direct competitors, as their focus is on major events and concerts rather than weekly events in clubs, bars, and pubs. Also, ticketing companies do not offer a complete solution with guest-list management systems for event organizers or venue owners like BaBash, their main and only focus is to sell tickets.
Ordering via mobile application is provided by companies such as Bolt Food and Wolt, but they also compete with us indirectly, as their focus is mainly on delivering food from restaurants and cafes. Our focus is to enable users to order contactless and without queues in nightclubs and events on-site.
Uses of Funds & Timeline
This round is led by the CEO of Thorgate Raido Pikkar, and other investors include Taavi Immato, lead-singer of Shanon, and Robert Rool, the host of the TV show "Õhtu". The goals of this investment round are:
Raising €50 000
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Increase our sales-team
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Launch larger-scale marketing campaigns in Estonia to establish our brand BaBash as a unified platform for nightlife venues and events
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Expand to Latvian market
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Get to €7 000-€9 000 MRR
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Onboard 20-30 venues where contactless ordering is possible
Raising €100 000
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Increase our sales and marketing teams
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Launch larger-scale marketing campaigns in Estonia and our first foreign market to establish our brand BaBash as a unified platform for nightlife venues and events
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Expand to Latvian, Lithuanian and Finnish markets
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Get to €10 000+ MRR by the end of the year
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Onboard 40+ venues where contactless ordering is possible
Obligations to Investors, Profit Distribution
For our Fundwise investors, we offer the option of redeeming their funds during future investment rounds.
Dividends will be paid to our shareholders once we start earning a profit. Initially, the main focus will be on expanding the business and entering new markets. The dividends will be paid in the amount of 20-30% of the overall profit, and the first payouts are planned to take place between 2024 and 2025.
Risks and Mitigation
Software updates guaranteed by a software developer with more than 10 years of experience.
Server security, administration, risk management, and the main admin account is managed by a certified developer, under the responsibility of security and legal expert.
Payment solution security. Payment security is guaranteed by our payment services partner: Stripe.
Storing customer data. Data security is the responsibility of our legal partner (board members). Sensitive data is not stored, important information such as passwords are encrypted with a strong bcrypt algorithm.
Covid risk - BaBash is a unified platform for nightlife venues and events, and even though restrictions are being slowly lifted, vaccination is going on its full throttle, and life is getting back to normal, there's always a risk of another covid wave which would close the aforementioned sectors like the last time. We tackled the previous lockdown by introducing our users BaBashs Experiences, i.e we started selling online cocktail courses, special offers from our partners like Tanker Brewery, Siidrikoda etc. If there would be a new lockdown coming, we'd switch to Experiences and would find different workarounds to get through the pandemic.
Company name: LSL Grupp OÜ
Company's registration code: 14585332
Company's address: Mustamäe tee 44, Tallinn 10621, Estonia
Company's phone no.: 55612055
Company's e-mail: andrei.stepin@babash.eu
Homepage | Facebook
Fundwise's e-mail: info@fundwise.me
Investment amount
49 938 - 99 877 €
Equity offered
5,16 % to 9,81 %
Equity offered per investor
281 € to 59 758 €
Current share capital
3273 €
Company current valuation
918 250 €
Share capital after campaign
3 451 - 3 629 €
Company valuation after campaign
968 188 - 1 018 127 €
1 € nominal share price
281 €
TEAM
Andrei Stepin
CEO&Co-Founder
Andrei is the CEO & Co-Founder at BaBash. He has sold educational study guides door-to-door in the U.S with Southwesternd Advantage for three summers and was in the top 5% of all sales people each year. He also gained experience as an Operations manager in one of Estonia's most popular pace-setting startups, Bolt.
Tõnn Luts
COO&Co-Founder
Tõnn is BaBashs’ COO & Co-Founder with great management skills - he built business with Southwestern Advantage for 5 years and became a sales-leader already in his second year (company’s record). He also led and managed a group of 10+ people and generated €500 000+ of revenue each summer.
Artem Danilov
Lead-Developer
Artem is our lead-developer with more than 10 years of experience in web and mobile development, having experience in HP, Javascript, Node, Mysql, Postgresql, Mongodb, Phonegap languages.
Raido Pikkar
Lead-mentor & advisor
Raido is our lead-mentor and advisor with 15+ years of experience in the startup world. He’s the CEO of Thorgate Group, which consists of companies like Thorgate Ventures, Thorgate Digital, Thorgate Management and many more.
Ranol Kaseväli
Sales advisor
Ranol is our sales mentor and advisor with 16+ years of experience in sales and management. He’s a Regional Director in Southwestern Advantage and has broken many sales records in that company.