Snap Acquires Saturn to Revolutionize Social Scheduling for Students

What you need to Know

• Snap has acquired Saturn, a calendar app for students, with undisclosed financial details.

• Saturn will continue to function as a standalone app post-acquisition.

• Saturn allows students to share schedules and coordinate in real-time.

• Supported in 80% of U.S. high schools, Saturn enjoys widespread adoption.

• The acquisition aligns with Snap’s goal to boost real-world social connections.

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In a bid to further increase real-world interactions among younger users, Snap Inc. has made the official move to acquire Saturn, a widely used calendar app specific to high school and college students. The acquisition was made official by Snap to TechCrunch on Friday, with the terms of the transaction not made public. Saturn, though acquired, will still be an independent application.

A Social Twist on Time Management

Situated in 2018, Saturn reinvents digital calendars with a fundamentally social spin so that students can easily manage and share their class schedules. Traditional calendar tools are different since Saturn enables users to see their friends' class schedules, extracurricular activities, meetings, games, and rehearsals all at once and in real-time. This eliminates the necessity for students to send innumerable photos of timetables and makes coordinating meetups and study sessions much easier.

Snap's acquisition of Saturn is an extension of a larger effort to integrate social experiences with utility-driven features, making Snapchat more than a content-sharing and messaging platform.

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Strengthening Snap’s Team and Technological Expertise

Part of the deal is that almost the entire Saturn team close to 30 full-time employees will be coming with Snap. Although Snap has not specified precisely how it plans to incorporate Saturn into Snapchat, a company spokesperson alluded to intentions to "bring Saturn's calendaring know-how into Snapchat in creative new ways."

This would mean that Snapchat might soon introduce native scheduling and time-management tools geared specifically for students likely a significant attraction for Gen Z users who already depend on the app for daily communication.

Saturn's Broad Penetration Throughout U.S. Schools

Snap has emphasized that Saturn is currently being supported in 80% of American high schools, reflecting its high popularity and respected presence in the education sector. Widespread adoption points to a vast user base that Snap is able to leverage, supporting student-to-student engagement both online and offline.

Snap recognizes value in the way Saturn has made planning and organizing less of a drudgery and more of a social endeavor. In doing this, Saturn has turned the utilitarian calendar into a means of building real-world connections, perfectly aligning with Snap's greater purpose.

A Startup Backed by Big Names

Saturn's startup journey has been quite eventful. In 2021, the firm secured $44 million in a funding round that was led by venture behemoths like General Catalyst, Insight Partners, and Coatue. The round also included high-profile names like Jeff Bezos (Bezos Expeditions), Marc Benioff, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and actor-turned-investors Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary's Sound Ventures.

This strong support is a reflection of the investors' vision for how Saturn's innovative path to student living and time management attracted them.

What’s Next for Snapchat?

While Snap isn't revealing its integration roadmap, this buy could set the stage for Snapchat to roll out student-centric scheduling features, event notifications, and even class- or club-specific Snap groups. These would not only keep people engaged on the platform longer but also make Snapchat a utility in students' daily lives and not just entertainment.

Through the combination of Saturn's capabilities with Snapchat's social DNA, Snap can re-engineer digital calendars for the future.

Snap's acquisition of Saturn is another bold move in its journey to be a platform that celebrates true, real-world connection. With U.S. students already on board with Saturn, this acquisition gives Snap a head start in claiming a novel niche: social scheduling.

While Saturn has been working in parallel and its staff blends into Snap, the next few months may unleash potent new features that reshape the way students structure their school and social lives all within Snapchat.