Luscid, a startup that has developed a software platform for brands to find and track sponsorship opportunities using data-driven insights, has secured £1m in seed funding.
The London-based startup is looking to take a different approach to the sponsorship industry, which has typically been driven by human biases and commercial agreements between consultants and rightsholders.
Luscid was founded by Damien Gillman in 2022 with Harry Coe, son of Olympic champion distance runner and now World Athletics chief Lord Sebastian Coe, to bring a data-driven approach to sports and entertainment sponsorships.
Covering 500,000 historic and live partnerships over the last 15 years, Luscid claims to offer a better understanding of how customers’ behaviours, brand values, and business goals align with potential sports and entertainment partnerships.
Brands such as Accor, Santander, and Binance use Luscid’s platform to search more than 85 genres across sports, e-sports, cultural, and entertainment sectors to assist with sponsorship decision-making.
By putting together and analysing consumer survey data, media listening insights, search and social data, past deals, and performance metrics, Luscid aims to identify which partnership solutions are likely to be more successful or impactful to a brand’s consumer base.
The £1m round was led by dozens of angel investors, including Craig Pollard, who has spent over a decade driving the success of Apple’s products and partnerships in the UK.
The startup will use the funding to develop its proprietary technology and support market expansion.
Coe, who is CEO of Luscid, said: “If you understand the interests of your customers and the best methods to communicate with them through those interests, combined with a pinpoint understanding of exactly which partnerships your marketing budget will allow you to create and which of those opportunities mirror the beliefs that you as a business want to project to the world, then you have the foundations of successful sponsorship.”
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