INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
What does brand loyalty even mean anymore App downloads, points, stars, and other complex reward systems have not just spawned their own
media empires trying to decipher them, they have failed at their most basic objective: building a stronger bond between a brand and its
consumers.Bumped wants to reinvent the loyalty space by giving consumers shares of the companies they shop at
improvement), and when they spend money at that store using a linked credit card, Bumped will automatically give them ownership in that
company.The startup, which is based in Portland and was founded in March 2017, announced the beta launch of its service today, as well as a
$14.1 million series A led by Dan Ciporin at Canaan Partners, along with existing seed investors Peninsula Ventures, Commerce Ventures, and
Oregon Venture Partners.Bumped is a brokerage, and the company told me that it has passed all FINRA and SEC licensing
When consumers spend money at participating retailers, they receive bona fide shares in the companies they shop at
Each retailer determines a loyalty percentage rate, which is a minimum of 1% and can go up to 5%
Bumped then buys shares off the public market to reward consumers, and in cases where it needs to buy fractional shares, it will handle all
business sense, it can have a wider social impact of democratizing access to the public equity markets
13.9% of people directly own a share of stock
By offering shares, he hopes that Bumped engages consumers to think about their relationship to companies in a whole new way
has built a company in the loyalty space
He previously was a co-founder and CEO of Giftango, a platform for prepaid digital gift cards that was acquired by InComm in late
2012.Consumers will have to choose their Bumped loyalty partner in each category, like burgersThat previously experience has helped the
company build an extensive roster for launch
Bumped has 19 brands participating in the beta, including Chipotle, Netflix, Shake Shack, Walgreens, and The Home Depot
Another 6 brands are currently papering contracts with the firm.Ciporin of Canaan said that he wanted to fund something new in the loyalty
such as this paper by Jaakko Aspara, showing that becoming a shareholder in a company tended to make consumers significantly more loyal to
those brands.In the short run, Bumped heads into a crowded loyalty space that includes companies like Drop, which I have covered before on
loyalty platforms.Longer term, he hints at exploring how to offer this sort of equity loyalty model to small and medium businesses, a
significantly more complex challenge given the lack of liquid markets for their equity
Today, the company is exclusively focused on publicly-traded companies.Bumped today has 14 people, and is targeting a team size of around 20
