Riding the momentum of releasing
Sapphire Ventures and Cervin Ventures were involved in the Series B funding round, bringing their total of support to $31 million for Mountain View, Calif.-based Punchh.
With Punchh Acquire, restaurant owners can identify a customer through various channels including WiFi, social platforms and Apple Pay. It is currently out of its testing phase and in operation at Del Taco, Noodles & Co., Pei Wei, Focus Brands and others.
“Punchh is already a global leader in digital marketing solutions for restaurants, which alone would be a fantastic reason to invest in the company,” Jai Das, managing director at Sapphire Ventures, said in a Thursday press release. “But the scope of their technology goes far beyond just restaurants and encompasses all brick-and-mortar stores with a POS."
Punchh wants to help brick-and-mortar companies enter an omnichannel commerce for their customers in combining marketing, payments, loyalty and rewards to counter what is occurring in many e-commerce spaces.
“Companies like Amazon have digital, data-driven, and tailored 1-1 marketing down to a science, while brick and mortar retailers are left data-blind and forced to spray and pray," Shyam Rao, CEO and co-founder of Punchh, said in the release.
"They don’t learn from your past purchases, can’t recommend products they know you’ll buy, and they aren’t able to send the right offers to you at just the right time,” he added.
Punchh says its new AI and machine learning tools help brick-and-mortar retailers with the same data-driven, omni-channel marketing strategies that have allowed digital merchants to continually gain market share. Ultimately, it is designed to help physical retailers create omnichannel campaigns to drive customer growth.
“Consumers that choose to do their shopping online as opposed to going to the store aren’t lazy," Rao said. "Online retailers are simply doing a better job at knowing their customers and keeping them loyal with delightful and customized shopping experiences.”
