Snatch, AR Gaming App to Reward in-gaming Effort w/ Real-world Prizes
Snatch, the augmented reality treasure hunt app, launches today with £50 million worth of prizes from big brands, to be found on the UK’s streets.
Free to download and play, Snatch works by using a player’s smartphone location paired with augmented reality to transform their immediate surroundings into an interactive playground. Players then compete to seek out and steal virtual parcels for real-world prizes
Snatch’s Chief Technology Officer is Duncan Ross, former Chief Technology Officer of Nintendo, Sony and Samsung and he has worked and consulted for some of the biggest names in entertainment including Disney, Pixar and Warner Bros. Snatch is an entirely new way for brands to reach an engaged consumer base through immersive reality technology.
Joe Martin, Snatch’s founder and CEO, said: “Snatch allows people to compete for real prizes, experience the thrill of winning and the illicit kick of stealing other people’s parcels. It’s an entirely new way for brands to reach customers. It’s gamifying the whole experience and changing it: people are tracking down brands rather than the other way around, but the outcome is the same- it all leads to product discovery and brand engagement.”
During the game’s beta phase it attracted 500,000 players with average game play of 90 minutes per day. Its daily active users are between 40,000 and 60,000 day.
To win prizes on Snatch you have to successfully keep and defend your parcels for six hours. The prizes up for grabs include gig tickets, holidays, hard cash and products from the likes of Nike, Xbox, Heineken, Missguided, Boohoo, Gousto, Virgin Wines, Nike, Xbox, Netflix and Samsung.
Although players have to hunt parcels, with Snatch there’s one sneaky twist: other players can steal your parcels and prizes from you. You can defend them by deploying virtual gadgets such as a Trap, Hideout or a Swarm or check in to a Safe House (such as a pub or restaurant). Players can also buy extra in-game coins to purchase these weapons should you need them. The launch coincides with the game undergoing a redesign, with new graphics, new features, and a new way of playing with a levelling up system.
Snatch’s launch today coincides with the announcement of £4.4million ($5.8million) in seed funding led by Initial Capital with participation from First Minute Capital, Crunch Fund, Simon Equity Partners, Cassius Family Fund, Hanson Asset Management, Velocity Technology Fund and Silicon Valley Bank.
Snatch was founded by Joe Martin and Jamal Hirani in 2016 and has previously received funding from Unilever Ventures. The app has offices in London and San Francisco and will use the funding to grow the app in the UK as well as start planning towards a global expansion, with a USA launch on the horizon.
Snatch is available to download from the Google Play Store and the Apple Store now
About Snatch
