AppCard Raises $20M in Series B Funding, Adds Successful Loyalty Entrepreneur to Their Board, Launches Redesigned Website & M...
February 26 2016 - 9:30AM
Business Wire
AppCard (www.appcard.com), an innovative marketing and loyalty
platform for small and medium sized retailers, announced that it
has raised $20 million in Series B funding. Alexander Rittweger,
founder of Loyalty Partner, and PLDT Capital, the investment arm of
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT, NYSE:PHI,
PSE:TEL), led the round. Existing investors: Founders Fund (Peter
Thiel), Innovation Endeavors (Eric Schmidt), and Jerry Yang also
participated.
AppCard empowers thousands of retailers to market directly to
their customers in a personalized way. The technology combines
item-level smart data capture with artificial intelligence to
automate marketing. After developing and optimizing the product to
cater to specific retail verticals, AppCard released its latest
version in the second half of last year and generated explosive
growth. The new funding is intended to fuel that and further
develop the technology.
“I’m convinced that AppCard’s advanced technology will help us
build a performance-marketing platform unrivalled in the small and
medium-sized business marketplace,” said Alexander Rittweger. “I’m
excited to marry my global loyalty experience with this team’s
exceptional digital experience.” Rittweger founded PAYBACK, the
world’s largest coalition loyalty platform with over 70 million
active members in Germany, Italy, India, Mexico and Poland, and
sold it to American Express.
“We’re fortunate to be able to add strategic investors with deep
loyalty and marketing experience,” said Yair Goldfinger, AppCard
co-founder and chief executive. “AppCard continues to deliver on
its vision to empower retailers to make data driven marketing
decisions based on customers’ buying behaviors.” Previously,
Goldfinger was the co-founder of ICQ (an instant messaging pioneer
acquired by AOL) and Dotomi (a personalized online-advertising
platform acquired by ValueClick).
“The AppCard platform caught our attention because of its
advanced technology and creative business model,” said Winston
Damarillo, Co-Managing Director of PLDT Capital. “The leadership is
a dream team, consisting of successful tech and loyalty
entrepreneurs. We’re excited to bring the benefits of AppCard to
the PLDT Group, as well as to consumers and merchants in the
Philippines and the Southeast Asian region.”
In addition, AppCard today released a newly designed logo,
website, and mobile iOS and Android apps. They’re available for
download via iTunes and Google Play.
AppCard is growing fast. To view job openings please visit:
www.appcard.com/careers
About AppCard
AppCard, an innovative personalized marketing and loyalty
platform, uses smart data capture and artificial intelligence to
change the way retailers communicate with their customers. The
technology empowers thousands of businesses, across all segments,
to offer personalized, multi-channel marketing offers directly to
shoppers, creating new opportunities for consumer outreach and
retention. For more information, please visit www.appcard.com.
About Alexander Rittweger
Alexander Rittweger founded Germany-based Loyalty Partner and
PAYBACK in 1998 and turned PAYBACK into the world’s largest
coalition loyalty platform with over 70 million active members in
Germany, Italy, India, Mexico and Poland. He sold a majority stake
in the business to American Express in 2011. Rittweger is an
entrepreneurial investor focused on disruptive global retail
platforms.
About PLDT Capital
PLDT Capital, the strategic investment arm of Philippine
Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT, NYSE:PHI, PSE:TEL), is the
leading telecoms and digital services provider in the Philippines.
The firm’s investments are an important part of supporting the PLDT
Group’s digital pivot, a strategy that entails collaboration with
world-class pioneering companies in Silicon Valley and around the
world. For more innovation, please visit www.pldt.com
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160226005074/en/
For AppCardJenna Landry, +516-724-0600
MobilePress@Appcard.com
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