Claim, a platform that is both a rewards app and a social network, has raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital. The startup is on a mission to make shopping fun, social and rewarding. The software established on an beta that is invite-only January and is currently focused on university and college students in Boston.
With Claim, users and their friends can back earn cash, trade incentives and also get all of them collectively. The working platform is a network that is social aims to focus on real-world value and communal experiences rather than manufactured content and reposts.
The startup was founded by CEO Sam Obletz and CTO Tap Stephenson in 2021 november. The duo came across if they became roommates at Yale and created the basic idea for Claim when they reunited in business school at Harvard. Obletz and Stephenson originally started out by thinking about what it means to own something digital.
“We started Claim it meant to own something online,” Stephenson told For Millionaires in an interview because we were really interested in what. “We saw this in web3 and now we see this activities, that is in memorabilia. There’s always been locations where you could have anything internet based, but there was clearly no form that is generalized of. And so we started asking: what would it mean to remove all friction to something that is actually owning? And therefore over time, led to Claim.”
The pair began by envisioning a platform where you could make incentives which are functional when you look at the world that is real linked to your credit card. They then decided that users should be able to use the rewards with their friends or exchange them. That they were embarking on a social mechanism that doesn’t widely exist today.
Claim as they came up with these ideas, Obletz and Stephenson realized brings consumers a kind that is new of based on value that is somewhat similar to the idea of trading cards, but for brands. The startup says it has turned consumer rewards into a multiplayer game by allowing users to have experiences that are new while spending less.Image Credits:
Claim / Claim co-founders Sam Obletz and touch Stephenson
If you adore a brand name along with your buddy has actuallyn’t examined it yet, you are able to deliver all of them a reward that is special a free acai bowl from your favorite coffee shop or a t-shirt from your favorite streetwear brand. You can exchange rewards, try places that are new, and make condition from investing at companies. Claim additionally does a “drop” once per week where people unwrap a unique incentive during the time that is same. Users can decide to redeem the reward, gift it or trade it with friends.
Although Claim aims to be beneficial for consumers, the startup is also focused on helping marketers and brands reach new customers in a way that does involve bombarding them n’t with advertisements on Bing, Instagram and TikTok. On Claim, customers discover companies via incentives from buddies. The startup feels that the capacity to really decide to try an item is much more useful than an ad whenever attempting to attain customers that are new
“We make it so much easier for marketers,” Obletz said. “We can find customers based on where they shop and where their friends shop. Before we can give them a reward to try their brand for the first time, which is super critical because we’re bringing in real new customers, and we can show them how effective that reward was based on spend if they haven’t gone. And thus it is simply this insanely marketing that is simple that we’ve created.”
The startup is currently working with merchants ranging from Fortune 500 companies, like PepsiCo, and restaurants that are local such as for example lifetime Alive in Boston.
Claim’s very early outcomes have now been guaranteeing, because it believes this group of people are interested in authenticity and are tired of advertising, especially when every other post on social media these days appears to be sponsored as it says one partner on its platform hit 97% of their new customer goal in half the expected time, while another acquired customers with a 35% repeat rate within 30 days.
Claim is currently focused on Gen Z as its entire user base. The startup wants to continue testing in Boston, where it currently has more than 10,000 users, before eventually expanding nationally.
As for the new funding, the company plans to use it to hire new talent and grow its eight-person team over the year that is next. Claim may also utilize the money to pay attention to assessment and discovering from an engineering viewpoint before growing into brand-new markets.(*)The startup’s seed round employs its unannounced $2 million round that is pre-seed by Susa Ventures and package Group. Claim’s money rounds included involvement from 6th guy Venture, Reflexive Capital, A* Capital, GSW Ventures, The Kraft Group and much more.(*)
