merchants track how their offers are doing at attracting new customers, and how loyal those customers stay over time—without exposing the shopper’s identity, Beecher says. Merchants only pay Cartera once a customer has actually shopped there and gotten the deal.
So what was that about the financial crisis? See, Cartera also works with the banks to connect them with the merchant deals to offer to their cardholders. And since the financial crisis pushed some regulatory reform that has prevented credit and debit card providers from charging some of the fees that they used to, banks have been scrambling for new ways to make money, Beecher says.
Cartera works with more than 60 banks and loyalty programs, including the top five financial institutions and three of the top four airlines. Last week Cartera announced it was working with Barclays and IHG.
The startup has raised over $30 million in venture funding from backers like Dace Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, LBO Enterprises, and Venture Capital Fund of New England. It has about 165 employees that it hopes will hit 200 by the end of this year.
Beecher said Cartera’s roster of merchant clients and bank partners surpasses other competitors in the space. Earlier this year the company merged with Atlanta-based competitor Vesdia. With group buying and other consumer focused companies scrambling to better attract loyal customers, it will be interesting to see who catches the eye of local merchants
