Declare, a social community that lets customers earn and commerce rewards with associates, raises $4M

Claim, a platform that’s each a rewards app and a social community, has raised $4 million in a seed funding spherical led by Sequoia Capital. The startup is on a mission to make purchasing enjoyable, rewarding and social. The app launched on an invite-only beta in January and is at the moment centered on college and school college students in Boston.

With Declare, customers and their associates can earn money again, alternate rewards and even redeem them collectively. The platform is a social community that goals to give attention to real-world worth and communal experiences reasonably than manufactured content material and reposts.

The startup was based by CEO Sam Obletz and CTO Faucet Stephenson in November 2021. The duo met once they turned roommates at Yale and got here up with the concept for Declare once they reunited in enterprise college at Harvard. Obletz and Stephenson initially began out by excited about what it means to personal one thing digital.

“We started Claim because we were really interested in what it meant to own something online,” Stephenson advised TechCrunch in an interview. “We saw this in web3 and we see this sports, which is in collectibles. There’s always been places where you can own something online, but there was no generalized form of it. And so we started asking: what would it mean to remove all friction to actually owning something online? And that over time, led to Claim.”

The pair began off by envisioning a platform the place you may earn rewards which are usable in the true world and linked to your bank card. They then determined that customers ought to have the ability to use the rewards with their associates or alternate them. As they got here up with these concepts, Obletz and Stephenson realized that they have been embarking on a social mechanism that doesn’t extensively exist at present.

Declare brings customers a brand new type of expertise primarily based on worth that’s considerably much like the concept of buying and selling playing cards, however for manufacturers. The startup says it has turned client rewards right into a multiplayer sport by permitting customers to have new experiences collectively whereas saving cash.

Picture Credit: Declare / Declare co-founders Sam Obletz and Faucet Stephenson

If you happen to love a model and your pal hasn’t checked it out but, you may ship them a particular reward like a free acai bowl out of your favourite espresso store or a t-shirt out of your favourite streetwear model. You possibly can alternate rewards, attempt new locations collectively, and earn standing from spending at manufacturers. Declare additionally does a “drop” as soon as per week the place customers unwrap a brand new reward on the similar time. Customers can determine to redeem the reward, present it or commerce it with associates.

Though Declare goals to be helpful for customers, the startup can be centered on serving to entrepreneurs and types attain new prospects in a approach that doesn’t contain bombarding them with adverts on Google, Instagram and TikTok. On Declare, customers uncover manufacturers through rewards from associates. The startup believes that the power to really attempt a product is extra helpful than an advert when attempting to succeed in new prospects.

“We make it so much easier for marketers,” Obletz mentioned. “We can find customers based on where they shop and where their friends shop. If they haven’t gone 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. And so it’s just this insanely simple marketing tool that we’ve created.”

The startup is at the moment working with retailers starting from Fortune 500 firms, like PepsiCo, and native eating places, akin to Life Alive in Boston.

Declare’s early outcomes have been promising, because it says one associate on its platform hit 97% of their new buyer purpose in half the anticipated time, whereas one other acquired prospects with a 35% repeat price inside 30 days.

Declare is at the moment centered on Gen Z as its whole consumer base as a result of it believes this group of individuals are all in favour of authenticity and are uninterested in promoting, particularly when each different submit on social media nowadays seems to be sponsored. The startup needs to proceed testing in Boston, the place it at the moment has greater than 10,000 customers, earlier than ultimately increasing nationally.

As for the brand new funding, the corporate plans to make use of it to rent new expertise and develop its eight-person staff over the subsequent 12 months. Declare may even use the funding to give attention to testing and studying from an engineering perspective earlier than increasing into new markets.

The startup’s seed spherical follows its unannounced $2 million pre-seed spherical led by Susa Ventures and Field Group. Declare’s funding rounds included participation from sixth Man Enterprise, Reflexive Capital, A* Capital, GSW Ventures, The Kraft Group and extra.