- Nudge Rewards announced it has raised $9.3 million in funding led by Chicago-based Jump Capital with support from existing investors
Nudge Rewards has announced it raised $9.3 million in funding led by Chicago-based Jump Capital with support from existing investors to scale growth and drive innovation in employee experience management. The funding round will also continue helping leading brands mobilize their frontline. And Nudge Rewards announced that Michael McMahon — Managing Partner at Jump Capital — is joining the company’s board of directors.
Founded by Lindsey Goodchild (Chief Executive Officer), Dessy Daskalov (Chief Technology Officer), Jordan Ekers (Chief Customer Officer), Nudge Rewards is considered one of the leading mobile-first solutions in frontline employee communication for experience-driven brands, empowering retail store associates and restaurant/hospitality staff to better deliver on the brand’s promise. And the company has seen demand rise rapidly over the past three years as brands increasingly realize the need for an effective way to influence and inspire their frontline as a means of solving inconsistent execution and performance. Over the past year, Nudge has increased headcount by more than 40% and grown revenue by nearly 200%.
Along with scaling go-to-market capacity, the funding will be put toward growing the Data Science team in order to advance innovation within the emerging category of employee experience management, driven by predictive insights into frontline team performance that directly correlate to business outcomes like profitability and retention. And by investing in machine learning and AI, Nudge is empowering customers to drive continual KPI improvement with powerful recommendations enabling data-driven decision making.
“Today’s announcement validates the increasing demand from world-class brands for a more effective way of connecting with their frontline employees. We’re thrilled to have the backing of Jump Capital as we enter our next phase of growth,” said Nudge Rewards CEO and founder Lindsey Goodchild. “Jump shares our passion for digital transformation of an underserved workforce and being at the forefront of innovation in employee experience data across our key industries.”
Nudge Rewards’ Director of Marketing Nav Sangha also pointed out that the company is driven by a belief that employees perform better when they are empowered rather than audited and the Nudge app draws on behavior theory to build meaningful employee programs from the bottom-up. And mobile campaigns are designed upon choice architecture — a way of presenting choices that positively influences behaviors without disrupting the voluntary nature of “nudging.” The company’s customers include Roots, Margaritaville, Samsung, and Golf Town, all of which use Nudge to connect with their frontline in meaningful ways.
“We are extremely excited to partner with Lindsey and the Nudge Rewards team as the emerging market leader in the empowerment of frontline associates,” added McMahon. “Our investment reflects a shared conviction that tremendous value can be unlocked through the effective engagement and nurturing of customer-facing resources creating differentiated customer experiences and better financial outcomes.”
Nudge recently released Manager Insights, which provides frontline managers with access to actionable team performance data at their fingertips, better enabling them to coach employees toward improving location metrics.
Including this round of funding, Nude has raised over $15 million — which includes funding from Jump Capital and existing investors BDC, Brightspark, Generation Ventures, and Standup Ventures.
And with a founding team that is two-thirds female, Nudge’s leadership is active in local programs that work to close the gender gap in tech.
