- Punchh announced it has raised $40 million in funding led by Adams Street Partners and Sapphire Ventures with participation from AllianceBernstein
Punchh has announced that it has raised $40 million in Series C funding led by Adams Street Partners and Sapphire Ventures with participation from AllianceBernstein. In conjunction with this round of funding, Robin Murray of Adams Street Partners is joining Punchh’s board of directors. And this new funding round represents another major milestone for the Punchh in 2019 as the company now reaches more than 100 million consumers.
“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,” said Shyam Rao, CEO of Punchh. “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.”
This round of funding will enable Punchh to accelerate the development of its customer AI technologies while expanding into new verticals. And as part of this expansion, Punchh also announced a partnership with Casey’s General Stores, a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest convenience store brands in the United States which operates 2,100 stores in 16 states throughout the Midwest.
“Punchh is exciting because they’re constantly pushing the boundaries of how retailers can leverage AI to enhance every step of the customer journey – from new customer acquisition to loyalist activation and beyond,” added Art Sebastian, Vice President of Digital Experience for Casey’s.
Through Punchh’s AI-powered platform, physical retailers build one-to-one customer relationships that grow loyalty, increase revenue, and quickly deliver ROI. And Punchh’s partners include nearly 200 global enterprise brands in more than 93,000 retail locations across the globe, including Yum! Brands, Denny’s, and Casey’s.
“Punchh works with the biggest brands, has the most sophisticated technology, and drives real results for their customers,” explained Robin Murray, partner at Adams Street Partners. “While everyone else got distracted by maximizing ecommerce, Punchh took the best technologies and practices from that space and applied them to physical retail. Now the world is coming back around – just look at Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods – and Punchh is already 10 steps ahead of the game.”
Punchh is considered the only marketing platform designed to meet the exacting needs of physical retailers and drive same store sales. And brands work from the single platform that applies Punchh’s proprietary AI to their data thus delivering all-channel engagement through personalized customer journeys.
“There’s tremendous opportunity in brick-and-mortar retail, and brands are looking for ways to better understand their customers and build data-driven relationships that translate into increased customer lifetime value. Punchh’s solutions allow retailers to do that in a highly scalable manner, which is why they’re trusted by so many leading brands, and why we’re so optimistic on their long-term growth,” commented Jai Das, managing director, president and co-founder of Sapphire Ventures.
Punchh launched in 2010 and now the company employs about 300 people across San Mateo, Austin, Toronto, Chennai, and Jaipur.
