Fintech TiiCKER Raises $5M in Seed Round to Accelerate Marketing and Benefits Platform
Funding enables first-time SaaS platform for retail shareholders to continue significant growth of user and shareholder benefits
DETROIT and GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., 19 April 2023 /PRNewswire/ — TiiCKER®, the world’s first shareholder loyalty and engagement platform, announced today that it has closed on a 5 million dollars seed funding round, led by Baysore Advisory Group, Red Cedar Ventures and Flipturn Ventures, with participation from a group of technology and consumer executives and family offices. The TiiCKER funding is earmarked for new talent and technology, including software and new product development, expanded partnerships with brokerages and other platforms for retail investors, enhanced AI technology for improved direct-to-shareholder marketing tools, and sales and developer talent to keep pace with user and customer growth.
“The number of public companies turning to shareholder benefits has increased nearly fivefold since we were founded three years ago, and TiiCKER has been at the forefront of this movement,” said Jeff Lambert (Tii:JEFE), founder and CEO of TiiCKER. “By 2022, we saw user growth more than double, our private investor community passed half a billion dollars in invested assets, and companies and brands are unlocking the purchasing power and loyalty of retail investors at an exponential rate. This increase is gratifying and a clear endorsement of our momentum , especially in the current and challenging market for venture capital, and we are very grateful to our investors who share our obsession to grow the shareholder loyalty market rocket.”
TiiCKER invented verified shareholder benefits in 2020 with the launch of the web and app platforms and completed its first pre-funding round in July 2021. TiiCKER is the first intelligent software platform to verify and reward retail shareholders with benefits and rewards from a wide variety of publicly traded companies, while unlocking a previously ignored affinity audience for public companies found in their retail shareholder base. Over the past three years, TiiCKER has successfully created a new industry in direct-to-shareholder marketing that has gained traction with partners such as world-class film and television studio operator Lions Gate Entertainment (Tii:LGF.A, LGF.B) , auto enthusiast services and lifestyle company Hagerty (Tii:HGTY), and consumer brands such as Whirlpool (Tii:WHR), Real Good Foods (Tii:RGF) and Willamette Valley Vineyards (Tii:WVVI).
“Every retail investor is by definition a consumer and they want the benefits of ownership with 77% saying they would buy a stock that offers benefits or shareholder discounts and 80% want benefits from the current companies they own,” said Kanan Banerjee (Tii: IOLO), Head of Marketing for TiiCKER. “Shareholder loyalty is the next thing in affinity marketing, and we’re excited to put this capital to work in B2B and B2C campaigns that demonstrate the win-win of shareholder benefits.”
TiiCKER added that proceeds from the raise will support continued investment in its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform and apps to help companies find and engage their retail investors and convert brand fans, influencers and consumers into investors. It will also expand its measurement tools to help big brands and public companies launch optimized benefits, measure the return on their marketing spend in new consumers, first-party data and sales, all to drive tangible Shareholder Lifetime Value™ or purchasing power. and the ownership value of a shareholder over the life of the investment.
TiiCKER recently announced a record year in 2022, with a 119% increase in registered users and a 140% increase in total retail stock connected to the TiiCKER platform, putting it on pace to exceed 1 billion dollars in retail equity ownership by the second half of 2023. TiiCKER’s continued success was also driven by over one million investor visits and brand page views, as well as thousands of total benefits redeemed in 2022, all in the face of equity market headwinds. To support employee and customer growth, TiiCKER recently purchased a five-story, 25,000-square-foot building downtown Grand Rapids, Mich. for its new headquarters. The company plans to implement a series of renovations to both accommodate its own growth and transform parts of the building into co-working and other rentable spaces for tech companies to drive more innovation, collaboration and talent attraction.
For more information about TiiCKER and its growing list of brand partnerships and initiatives, please visit TiiCKER.com or directly to the company’s brand pages at TiiCKER.com/(ticker symbol).
www.TiiCKER.com/WHR www.TiiCKER.com/HGTY www.TiiCKER.com/RGF www.TiiCKER.com/SURG
About the investors
Baysore Advisory Group is a family office focused on early and late stage venture and private equity investments nationally. Red Cedar Ventures is the early stage investment fund and startup community born from Michigan State University The foundation targets technology companies in Michigan. Flipturn Ventures is the early stage investment arm of the TiiCKER founder Jeff Lambert and includes seed investments in Cirkul, Dream Exchange, Libby Wines, and investor relations and marketing firm Lambert Global. Other investors span technology and consumer CEOs and family offices, including several members of YPO, the world’s largest global leadership group of CEOs.
About TiiCKER
Founded in 2019, fintech startup TiiCKER invented verified equity benefits and direct-to-shareholder marketing through its online and mobile app software platforms, giving consumers and investors a revolutionary way to engage with the brands they love. For America’s more than 100 million retail investors, TiiCKER provides unique access to shareholder benefits, branded and public company content, commission-free trading and unique features to help consumers discover and own the brands they love. For its public company partners, TiiCKER creates and markets shareholder loyalty programs, helping companies engage and reward their consumers and owners to maximize Shareholder Lifetime Value™. For more information, visit TiiCKER.com.
Media contact
Jeff Lambert
[email protected]
or
Megan BowmanLambert Global
[email protected]
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SOURCE TiiCKER
