The more coupon codes we get for online shopping, the better, but Harry Dixon, Rory Garton-Smith, and Elliott Rampono thought something was missing: the ability to put all the different savings we receive in one place.
“Marketing channels are saturated and everyone is trying to figure out their own channel,” CEO Dixon, who previously worked at EasyPost, told TechCrunch. “We’ve changed our experience and behavior to secure codes to get personalized codes, but we don’t know when they’re coming.”
Enter Checkmate, which launched 18 months ago with the aim of competing with online deal aggregators like Mar, Capital One Marketing and Vette to provide a shopping tool that collects all online discount codes, gift cards and personalized offers from your inbox. They will be applied immediately upon check-out.
Their offering is two-fold: users can track packages and manage gift cards from a dashboard. One of the best parts? Checkmate creates a “ghost email box” for you on the back end so you can tap 100’s of mailing lists without your inbox getting spammed.
Check co-founders, from left, Rory Garton-Smith, Harry Dixon and Elliot Rampono Image Credits: Validator
For retailers and brands, Checkmate is a powerful conversion engine that helps businesses reach new audiences and build long-term customer relationships. The company is then paid by brands to convert purchases.
The company is now armed with $5 million in seed funding led by Oil Capital. Joining in the round were Kevin Johnson, former Ebates CEO at Rakuten, f7 Ventures, Blackbird Ventures, Scribble Ventures, Hyper, Susa Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, Wischoff Ventures, Exits Capital, Knight Capital; Genealogy CEO Deborah Liu; Firstbase CEO Chris Herd; and XMTP Co-Founder and President Shane Mack.
The new funding is Checkmate’s total funding, and Dixon and Garton-Smith said the company will deploy the funds to product development, customer growth and additional product deals. The company recently launched an ambassador program with 10 colleges.
The company started the product in the summer with 200 customers, which has reached more than 1,000. And while it’s still in its early stages, customers are using Checkmate about five times per week and are saving an average of 27% per order, Garton-Smith said.
“As customer acquisition costs continue to rise, most direct-to-consumer companies have invested in personalized marketing to strengthen relationships with existing customers and acquire new ones,” wrote Chris Howard, co-founder of Full Capital. press release. “Checkmate is a purpose-built tool to respond to today’s market dynamics and deliver greater value to brands.”
