Physical retail startup SparkPlug secures $8 million in Series A funding

SparkPlug, an incentive management and wage supplementation platform for frontline workers, has announced an $8 million Series A funding round.

This was led by Lightbank, with participation from Industry Ventures, as well as existing investors TenOneTen Ventures and Jason Calacanis, bringing the company’s total investment raised to $11.5 million.

The new capital will be used to fuel SparkPlug’s growth plans which include key executive hires and investments into data, development, and behavioral science expertise to continue expanding its platform.

“We’re excited and energised to be closing this round in the most tumultuous fundraising and macroeconomic environment in recent memory,” says Andrew Duffy, CEO and Co-Founder, SparkPlug.

“It’s evidence of the critical inflection point brands find themselves in post-pandemic – to survive and thrive they need to re-invest in the resurgence of the physical retail channel.”

“We’re en route to becoming as ubiquitous and essential for influencing bricks and mortar customer acquisition as Google Ads is for influencing digital customer acquisition.”

“Coming out of the pandemic we’ve seen direct-to-consumer brands hit a major roadblock in expansion, and many leaders are coming to terms with the fact that a physical retail presence is necessary for the long-term health of a brand,” says Jake Levin, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder, SparkPlug

“With SparkPlug, these brands are able to harness the power of people to recreate the same curated, personalised customer experience in-store that made them stand out from legacy brands in the first place.”

SparkPlug works with more than 1,000 US retailers and over 200 brand partners.

Using its platform, retail and restaurant management teams, as well as brands themselves, can create a profit sharing incentive programme or sales contest that integrates directly into an organisation’s PoS system.

From there, employees can enrol into the programme via text message and automatically begin earning on every qualifying sale they make.

“To be successful in today’s complex retail landscape, retailers and brands need to have not only a strong omnichannel selling strategy, but also powerful tools that help train, motivate, and retain the people that are essential to the functions of these organisations,” says Matt Sacks, Co-Managing Partner at Lightbank.

“The SparkPlug team has created a rare win win situation for operators and employees: a proven, scalable method for driving revenue at the local level, while fairly rewarding the employees that drive that growth.”

“The retail landscape continues to evolve rapidly but one thing has become evident in recent years is the importance of having a powerful physical retail presence from the perspective of customer acquisition and product discoverability,” says Minnie Ingersoll, Partner at TenOneTen Ventures.

“SparkPlug has given digitally native brands an economically feasible tool for expansion that doesn’t sacrifice fair compensation for the workers that make that growth possible. We’re proud to be partnering with SparkPlug once again to help solve some of retail’s most pressing issues.”