Customer loyalty and CRM platform Embargo has raised $870,000 (£684,600) in a funding round featuring a Revolut executive and two professional basketball players.
London-headquartered Embargo works with hospitality businesses to provide customer data to inform retention strategies.
Businesses’ loyalty card programmes can be connected to the Embargo CRM and accessed by customers via the Embargo app. The customer data is tracked, visualised and accessible by Embargo clients.
“Driving retention, being able to capture and use high-quality data to actively manage your customer base have never been more important than today,” said Embargo co-founder and CEO Tsewang Wangkang.
“The inflation and increasing costs for business owners force not only major international brands like Starbucks or McDonalds to heavily invest into customer data and rewards technology, but even more SMEs.”
The funding round, shared exclusively with UKTN, featured participation from Polish investment fund Opoka TFI, Revolut global chief risk officer Pierre Decote and ecommerce platform IdoSell founder Pawel Fornalski.
“There is a big opportunity to revolutionise the traditional loyalty solutions and help merchants deepen their relationship with their customers base through the power of data,” said Decote.
“Actionable data and loyalty tools have been a goldmine for big retailers, as of recently also for the biggest international food and drinks chains.”
Additional funding came from former NBA player Tibor Pleiß and Basketball World Cup winner Andreas Obst.
The startup, which was founded by Wangkang and Frederick Szydlowski in 2017, said it plans to use the new funding to increase the size of its sales team and invest in new features.
Embargo previously raised £830,000 in a funding round back in 2021.