The firm’s payments ambitions would need another 2 years to come to fruition, though. Stocard entered the top 10 charts across a number of different countries, which only accelerated its popularity. The cash injection enabled the firm to hire 40 additional people and open offices in Paris as well as Toronto.Ģ5 million people had already signed up for the service at that point – with an additional 1 million joining the service every month. In June 2018, they invested another $20 million into Stocard. Investors certainly liked those ambitions as well. They also laid out plans to eventually become a bank that would offer all kinds of services ranging from checking accounts to cashback rewards. The founders became so confident in their ability to drive additional consumer demand that they even began to issue guarantees for prospective partners.įast forward to the summer of 2018 and the team started to raise their ambitions from being a mobile wallet to facilitating payments by themselves. That same month, the app crossed the inaugural mark of 10 million members. 9 months later, in December, they topped it up with another $4.4 million in funding. Fast forward to early 2016 and the app had already over 7 million users and expanded into a variety of countries across Europe.Īs a result, Shortcut Ventures and other investors poured €4 million into the firm back in March 2016. Nonetheless, Stocard continued to grow like a wildfire, mainly through word-of-mouth. Many B2C startups, in particular, utilize funding announcements and feature launches to create additional buzz for their offerings. Interestingly, unlike many other consumer-facing companies, Stocard largely continued working in silence. The app’s rapid ascend enabled the founders to raise a first seed round of $850,000 from German VC High-Tech Gründerfonds, Klaas Kersting, and a few other angels. The reason for his departure was certainly a positive one: the Stocard app, which was only available in Germany at first, had been downloaded over 130,000 times within 10 months of being launched.Īnd by the end of 2012, that number had already swollen to over 425,000 members. Goß even took a job at McKinsey only to quit 3 months later. They both pursued a master’s degree at the London School of Economics. Interestingly, Goß and Handlos were still enrolled as students when the app was unveiled. Weeks later, in early 2011, they launched the app. They eventually managed to convince Barth to join them as a third co-founder. Intrigued by the idea’s potential as well as the rapid adoption of mobile phones, the two began to work on a business plan literally on the way home to Germany. They both traveled to Australia sometime around Christmas 2010 and immediately noticed the heavy usage of loyalty cards due to the country’s high prices.ĭuring one faithful day on Australia’s Bondi Beach, Goß told Handlos that his girlfriend at the time had to carry two purses just to have all of her loyalty cards with her. In fact, it was Goß and Handlos who had the initial idea for Stocard. While Goß and Handlos focused on the business side of things, their technical co-founder Barth managed the tech portion of the business. Stocard, which is headquartered in Mannheim, Germany, was founded in 2011 by Björn Goß, David Handlos, and Florian Barth.Īll three founders met each other during their business and computer science studies at the prestigious University of Mannheim.
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