CrowdTwist recently announced a Series A round of funding of $6M from lead investors SoftBank Capital and Fairhaven Capital. CrowdTwist is a social loyalty and rewards platform that draws heavily from the loyalty side of gamification with a focus towards rewards, monetization, and a strong analytics platform, and the new round is a signal in the future growth of social loyalty and gamification.
Traditional loyalty campaigns have drawn from limited points programs and the majority of stores continue to rely on the “buy 10 get one free” model. CrowdTwist CEO Irving Fain, who spoke at last week’s GSummit, described the impact on loyalty campaigns, “The funding is validation that the definition of loyalty is changing and that brands need to broaden their focus to encompass the true cross-platform world that we live in today.”
Rooted in social media, CrowdTwist’s cross-platform approach breaks free from the typical gamification campaign in that it expands beyond the limits of the brand site and branches out across social media. “CrowdTwist’s focus to unify the social, online and offline world into a comprehensive and robust social loyalty and rewards platform has drawn extensive interest across many industries and we’re planning to use this funding to meet that demand head on,” Irving told us.
The funding is a clear signal of importance for loyalty campaigns and brand narratives to spread beyond the limits of your typical loyalty program.
