Belly offers a tablet-based loyalty platform that supplies merchants with the hardware (notably iPads) and a customizable app to manage customer rewards and analytics. The product emphasizes easy updates, a snappy user interface, and merchant-facing data to help small businesses track customer behavior. The company is active in 6,500 locations across 18 U.S. markets and employs just over 100 staffers. Leadership says Belly is on track to be profitable without further funding. Going forward, Belly plans to expand its geographical reach and pursue larger enterprise customers. The company positions itself to compete with both smaller loyalty startups and larger tech players making moves in the space. Belly provides a plug-and-play customer loyalty and rewards platform for local merchants, centered on an in-store iPad check-in, a universal Belly card, and iPhone/Android apps. Merchants pay a monthly subscription for unlimited Belly cards, in-store marketing materials, and secure access to customer data including points, redemptions, foot traffic, and card usage patterns. The platform enables merchants to send push notifications and tailored promotions, and Belly trains staff to encourage participation. Merchants can customize rewards and Belly emphasizes unique, brand-aligned experiences rather than one-size-fits-all punch-card programs. Since launching in August 2011, Belly reports over 200,000 active users, more than 800,000 check-ins, and partnerships with roughly 1,400 merchants, adding 100+ new businesses each week; it is live in Chicago, Austin, Milwaukee, Madison, Washington D.C., Phoenix, New York, and Boston. Planned product and operational priorities include expanding the sales team and market footprint, transitioning apps to HTML5, UI and speed improvements, and future POS integrations to capture transaction data. Belly provides a plug-and-play rewards platform for local merchants centered on an in-store iPad POS, mobile apps and a universal Belly card tied to customer emails. Merchants pay a monthly subscription for unlimited Belly cards, in-store marketing materials and secure access to customer data showing sales, points, redemptions and foot-traffic insights. Consumers check in via the merchant's Belly iPad or mobile apps to accumulate points toward personalized rewards, and Belly works with businesses to create unique, local incentives. Since its pilot launch Belly has been installed at 285 Chicago businesses, is adding nearly 50 new businesses per week, and has more than 18,000 users, 50,000 check-ins and roughly 500 new users per day. The company plans to expand nationally in the next few months and is exploring integrations with point-of-sale systems to capture transaction data. Belly competes with LevelUp, Perka, PerkVille, PunchTab and other loyalty providers.

Total raised

$22M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Aug 2013