Customer loyalty startup Reelo raises $1 million from Silicon Valley investor Gokul Rajaram

Customer loyalty and marketing startup Reelo has raised $1 million from solo capitalist Gokul Rajaram, the Silicon Valley- based angel investor, who has backed companies like online marketplace Faire, Figma, and collaboration software startup Airtable.

Based in Ahmedabad, Reelo plans to utilise the fresh capital to fuel its growth initiatives that includes ramping up hiring across all departments, expanding its footprint in current and new global markets, and enhancing its artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

Founded in 2021 by siblings Prit and Parin Sanghvi, Reelo offers a suite of marketing tools designed for small and mid-sized businesses. By integrating its platform with point-of-sale (PoS) billing software used by these businesses, Reelo enables them to gather customer data. The platform then automates marketing strategies and introduces loyalty programs aimed at customer retention and for generating other insights.

Reelo has partnered with various PoS billing software providers such as Petpooja, DotPe, TMBill and Posist Technologies among others.

According to Parin Sanghvi, who is the CEO of Reelo, he witnessed brands shifting their marketing budgets from acquisition to retention by focusing on loyalty in the US.

“In India, everyone was just giving deals and discounts, and all these flashy discount apps and companies were making it unsustainable for small and mid-sized businesses. That’s how I decided to join hands with my brother with the idea of leveraging technology and data to empower businesses to grow,” he said.

In addition to loyalty programmes, Reelo offers customer acquisition solutions like referral programmes and smart QR codes. Notable brands in the food and beverage sector, including Jumbo King, Jamie’s Italian, and Punjab Grill use Reelo’s platform.

“We have some of the best brands in the country in the food and beverage space, as well as other retail spaces like clothing and jewellery stores. Now that we have a good product and strong market penetration, the goal is to expand further,” Sanghvi said.

He added that expanding globally is a key objective for Reelo, which currently operates in nine countries across regions like the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Its plans for entry into the US market are underway.

Reelo currently has over 17,000 businesses onboarded to its platform and has engaged with over 16 million customers. It operates on a freemium model, offering a 14-day trial period followed by yearly subscriptions at Rs 24,000 or quarterly plans at Rs 7,000 for businesses to enjoy all its services.

With the infusion of funds, Sanghvi said he intends to recruit senior professionals for key positions such as head of product, head of marketing, senior designer, and others.

“Reelo’s simple and easy-to-use product requires zero expertise and solves a key pain point faced by the ecosystem. I am thrilled to support them in their mission and look forward to helping them continue to serve businesses globally,” said Rajaram, who is also a board member at companies such as Coinbase and Pinterest.

Other notable global players in the customer loyalty and engagement space include US-based Thanx and Canada-based TapMango.