AppCard (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. PLDT Capital, the investment arm of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT, NYSE:PHI, PSE:TEL) and Alexander Rittweger, founder of Loyalty Partner, 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: 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.
