Bumped operates a consumer app that converts spend at roughly 1,000 retailers into fractional stock rewards and launched with about 50,000 users. The company is also developing an enterprise app to let employers offer the same stock-as-reward benefit to employees. It built a brokerage and broker-dealer support capability to power the stock-reward program and its technology platform. Bumped ran a pilot with Columbia Business School, distributing 2 million stock rewards to study behavior and reported increases in repeat shopping and monthly spend. The study found less than 5% of recipients sold their stock and that brands received about 23x ROI from modest stock rewards. The product aims to broaden individual stock ownership and provide brands a new loyalty mechanism. Bumped operates an invite-only app that gives users free shares when they spend with participating brands. Users create a brokerage account, link their debit or credit card, and pick from more than 35 brands; when they spend, they receive a percentage of purchases back in shares. The company does not charge account or trading fees and generates revenue by charging participating brands. Bumped has doubled headcount since last year to 30 employees and moved into a Portland office with space for over 100 people. It was named to Fast Company’s 2019 “most innovative companies” list. Bumped is led by founder and CEO David Nelsen, who previously sold payments startup Giftango to InComm. Bumped is a Portland-based loyalty startup that gives consumers bona fide shares in the public companies where they shop. Through its app, customers pick preferred retailers and, when they spend on a linked credit card, Bumped buys shares on the open market and awards them to the customer at retailer-determined loyalty rates of 1–5%. The company operates as a licensed brokerage and says it has passed FINRA and SEC licensing, handling fractional-share logistics itself. Bumped launched a beta with 19 participating brands including Chipotle, Netflix, Shake Shack, Walgreens and The Home Depot, with six additional brands papering contracts. Founded in March 2017 by CEO David Nelsen, the 14-person startup is targeting a headcount of about 20 and is focused today exclusively on publicly traded companies. Longer-term it plans to explore extending equity-based loyalty to small and medium businesses, a more complex challenge due to illiquid private equity. Bumped launched an app that gives users fractional shares of stock when they spend money with participating brands. Customers create a brokerage account, link a debit or credit card, and pick brands; purchases earn a percentage back in shares. The 13-person company came out of stealth and is led by fintech veteran David Nelsen, who previously sold Giftango to InComm. Bumped does not charge account or trading fees and says customers are given fractional shares rather than investing their own capital. The company generates revenue by charging participating brands and aims to build 1-to-1 relationships between brands and customers through stock ownership. Bumped also positions its product as lowering barriers to stock ownership, citing that 14 percent of American households own company stock.

Total raised

$52M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Nov 2020