[Funding alert] Customer marketing solutions firm Punchh raises $40M led by Adams Street Partners and Sapphire Ventures

Punchh, a customer marketing solutions for physical retailers, raised $40 million in a Series C funding round led by Adams Street Partners and Sapphire Ventures, with participation from AllianceBernstein. Robin Murray of Adams Street Partners will join the company’s board.

The company said the new funding will be used to further augment Punchh’s AI capabilities as it expands into new verticals such as convenience stores and other physical retail segments.

As part of this expansion, Punchh also announced a partnership with Casey’s General Stores, Inc., a Fortune 500 company and a convenience store brand that operating 2,100 stores in 16 states throughout the Midwest in the US.

Shyam Rao, CEO of Punchh, said,

“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.”

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Punchh drives to be the only marketing platform designed to drive same store sales for the physical retail experience. By integrating with existing point-of-sale and ecommerce systems, the company collects in-store and online customer data in real time to generate a 360 degree view of customers across the entire customer lifecycle.

By applying Punchh’s proprietary AI to this customer data, brands can create and deliver personalised journeys, which allows retailers to distribute tailored offers to drive customer lifetime value. 

“Punchh is the undisputed leader in this category. They work with the biggest brands, have the most sophisticated technology, and drive real results for their customers,” said 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," he added.

Nearly 200 global enterprise brands currently use Punchh’s solutions in more than 93,000 retail locations across the globe - including Yum! Brands, Denny’s and Casey’s: the company’s flagship convenience store customer.

“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,” said Jai Das, Managing Director, President and Co-founder of Sapphire Ventures. 

Punchh is based in Silicon Valley, California with a second US office in Austin, TX and global offices in Toronto, Canada, the UK, Singapore, and Jaipur and Chennai in India.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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