App-based loyalty and mobile commerce has been around for a while, and that can mean one of two things: Customers have already grown fatigued with the tech and passed it over, or they’re just turning a corner of familiarization that could lead to imminent success.
AppCard’s new investors are putting a good deal of money on the latter outcome.
VentureBeat reported that AppCard, a mobile commerce rewards program for small to medium-sized retailers, has closed a $20 million round of Series B funding. Alexander Rittweger and PLDT Capital, the investment branch of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, led the round for AppCard, whose CEO, Yair Goldfinger, viewed the news as validation of his company’s technology that he calls “easy and intuitive” for retailers.
“Our capture technology is a small hardware device installed at retail stores,” Goldfinger told VentureBeat of the sensor AppCard uses to check users into physical locations and record purchase data. “It ‘copies’ the receipt data and sends it to our servers for analysis. With the hardware we place at the retail store, we are able to identify a customer by swiping a loyalty card, keying a phone number or tapping a phone — coupling the receipt information and the user identity we have to build a unique profile at retail stores.”
AppCard can interact with users’ smartphones through NFC, the scanning of a physical card or the entry of their phone numbers — meeting customers on whatever level they bring their information. Goldfinger also explained that, after the AppCard system collects enough information and monitors a few month’s worth of consumer behavior, it can also autonomously suggest marketing campaigns to retailers to ensure the highest degree of engagement across every consumer profile.
That is, if those consumers care enough to take their phones out at checkout to be profiled in the first place.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More