Punchh, the leader in customer marketing solutions for physical retailers, has raised $40 million in a Series C funding round led by Adams Street Partners and Sapphire Ventures, with AllianceBernstein also participating in the round. The company was founded by Shyam Rao in 2010.
The new funding will be used to further augment Punchh’s AI capabilities as it expands into new verticals such as convenience stores and other physical retail segments. Robin Murray of Adams Street Partners will also join Punchh’s board. As part of this expansion, Punchh also announced a partnership with Casey’s General Stores, Inc, a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest convenience store brands in the United States, operating 2,100 stores in 16 states throughout the Midwest.
Shyam Rao, CEO of Punchh said, “Consumers expect ubiquity of experiences online and off. In-store retail remains extremely popular and is one of the most powerful relationship building channels ever created. However, ecommerce has changed expectations for personalization so dramatically that marketers need to incorporate AI in order to remain competitive. Our platform gives retailers an unparalleled understanding of how customers engage with their brand in the real world, along with the ability to use that understanding to create AI-powered experiences that keep customers coming back for more.”
Punchh is the only marketing platform designed to drive same store sales for the physical retail experience. By integrating with existing point-of-sale and eCommerce systems, Punchh collects in-store and online customer data in real time to generate a 360 degree view of customers across the entire customer lifecycle. That lifecycle, powered by Punchh, brings people from “consumer” to “customer”, and from “customer” to “loyalist”. By applying Punchh’s proprietary AI to this customer data, brands can create and deliver personalized journeys, which allows retailers to distribute tailored offers to drive customer lifetime value. Nearly 200 global enterprise brands currently use Punchh’s solutions in more than 93,000 retail locations across the globe including Yum! Brands, Denny’s and Casey’s: the company’s flagship convenience store customer.
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