Company:Ibotta

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Short description: American mobile technology company
Ibotta, Inc.
TypePrivate
IndustryTechnology, coupons, mobile applications
Founded2011
FounderBryan Leach
Headquarters
Denver, Colorado
Area served
United States
Key people
Bryan Leach (CEO)
Luke Swanson
Rich Donahue (CMO)[1][2]
Sunit Patel (CFO)[3]
James H. Clark
Chris Jensen (CRO)[4]
Amir El Tabib (Chief Business Development Office)[5]
ServicesDirect marketing
Number of employees
950+ (2023)
Websitewww.ibotta.com

Ibotta is a North American mobile technology company founded by CEO Bryan Leach and based in Denver, Colorado. Ibotta partners with CPG (consumer packaged goods) brands and network publishers to offer cash back rewards on groceries, online shopping, general merchandise, retail purchases, travel, entertainment, pet supplies, and more. Rewards are offered through its Ibotta Performance Network, consumer properties including mobile app, online at Ibotta.com and via its browser extension.[6][7][8] Ibotta also offers cash back and rebates on alcohol (wine, beer, and spirits) that can be purchased at bars, restaurants, and liquor and grocery stores.[9][10] The company's rewards-as-a-service offering, the Ibotta Performance Network, went live in 2021.

The company's app is available on both iOS and Android devices and is currently available only in the United States.[11][12]

In August 2019, Ibotta received a $1 billion valuation after its Series D funding, and in 2023, the company surpassed $1.5 billion cash rewards paid to over 50 million consumers since the company's founding.[13]

History

Founding through early 2019

Ibotta was founded by current CEO Bryan Leach. The company was incorporated in 2011 and the app launched to both the App Store and Google Play stores in 2012.[14][15][16] In December 2012 Ibotta celebrated the signup of its 100,000th user.[17] Early investors included entrepreneur and computer scientist Jim Clark and Tom “TJ” Jermoluk, Chairman of @Home Network.[18]

In 2015, Ibotta expanded beyond item level grocery, adding the ability to get cash back on in-store retail purchases. In 2016, in-app mobile commerce began, allowing users to navigate from the Ibotta app to its partners' apps earn cash back for purchases.[19]

In 2016 with a Series C investment, Ibotta had raised over $73 million in funding.[20][21] In March of that year, Ibotta partnered with Anheuser-Busch (BUD) to offer cash back for adults who purchased its products, which include Bud, Bud Light, Stella Artois, Shock Top, Best Damn Root Beer, Goose Island, and Michelob Ultra.[9] In May, the company partnered with LiveRamp so that companies could use their CRM data to create segmented, personalized campaigns.[22] At the time, the company had around 200 full- and part-time employees and moved from offices in Lower Downtown Denver (LoDo) to a 40,000-square-foot office in the central Denver business district.[23] A year later, the company had to expand to a second floor as it added almost another 100 employees.[15]

In 2017 Ibotta added cash back for Uber to its app as well as cash back rewards for online and mobile purchases.[15][18]

In 2018, Ibotta was listed on the Inc. 5,000 list as one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S.[24] A year later, in January 2019, the company reported that the Ibotta app had been downloaded more than 30 million times and had credited users $500 million in cash back rewards.[25] That year, Ibotta was the largest mobile company in Colorado with 6 million monthly active users.[25]

August 2019 to present

In August 2019, Ibotta announced that it was valued at $1 billion, following a Series D round of funding.[26] The round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, a subsidiary of Koch Industries.[26]

2019 was also the year the company introduced Pay with Ibotta, which allowed users to complete purchases at key retailers on the Ibotta app and earn instant cash back in the process.[26] With that new service, users were able to enter their purchase total and use a QR code to checkout and receive immediate cash back.[26][24]

In 2020, the company partnered with Trees for the Future to plant up to 1 million trees as part of an Earth Month campaign to raise awareness about the waste of unused paper coupons.[27] In response to  the COVID-19 pandemic, Ibotta partnered with top brands in their “Here to Help” campaign and together committed over $10 million in cash back to American consumers.[28] The company added the ability to earn cash back from online grocery pick-up and delivery orders.

Later that year, Ibotta also started its free Thanksgiving program, providing users with 100% cash back on select groceries needed for a Thanksgiving meal.[29][30] By 2022, the company had provided approximately 10 million Thanksgiving meals.[29]

In 2021, Ibotta acquired the company OctoShop (originally Instok), whose app allows users to compare prices across stores, and set restock and price-drop alerts.[31]

In April 2022, Ibotta officially launched the Ibotta Performance Network.[32] This network of publishers, consisting of retailers like Walmart and Dollar General and third parties like Shell, provides offers to their customers. This pay per sales, or success based performance network reaches over 200 million consumers.[33][34][32]

Athletic Partnerships

Ibotta became the official jersey patch partner of the New Orleans Pelicans for the 2020–2021 season.[35] In September 2022, the partnership was renewed for the next three seasons.[36]

In March 2023, F1 driver Logan Sargeant, the first U.S. racer to compete in F1 since 2015, partnered with Ibotta.[37] The Ibotta logo is displayed on Sargeant's racing helmet.[37] A few months later, in June, Ibotta partnered with UConn basketball player Paige Bueckers and a number of other female collegiate athletes through its female collegiate athlete collaboration with Pearpop and the Brandr Group (TBG).[38]

Ibotta became the official jersey patch partner of the 2023 NBA champion Denver Nuggets for the 2023–2024 season.[39]

References

  1. https://martechseries.com/mts-insights/interviews/martech-interview-with-rich-donahue-chief-marketing-officer-at-ibotta/
  2. https://fortune.com/2023/04/17/convenience-store-industry-inflation-shoppers/
  3. https://www.cfo.com/corporate-finance/2021/03/cfos-on-the-move-week-ending-march-26-2/
  4. https://drugstorenews.com/ibotta-performance-network-debuts-3x-roas-guarantee
  5. https://retail-today.com/doubling-down-on-dollar-channel-success/
  6. Natanson, Elad. "How Major Brands Combine App Innovation With Old-Fashioned Marketing Principles To Win In Mobile". https://www.forbes.com/sites/eladnatanson/2015/07/15/how-major-brands-combine-app-innovation-with-old-fashioned-marketing-principles-to-win-in-mobile/#10be72fc13e6. 
  7. "Penny-Pinching Millennials Are Keeping the Coupon Alive". https://www.bloomberg.com/feature/2016-millennials-coupons/. 
  8. "In a World of Constantly Deleted Apps, This Mobile Player Uses Cash to Keep Folks Coming Back". http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/world-constantly-deleted-apps-mobile-player-uses-cash-keep-folks-coming-back-163025. 
  9. 9.0 9.1 "Free Beer! There's an App for That". 2016-03-02. http://fortune.com/2016/03/02/free-beer-budweiser-app/. 
  10. Pavini, Jeanette. "How to save on holiday spirits, wine and beer". http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-save-on-holiday-spirits-wine-and-beer-2015-12-29. 
  11. "Ibotta plans to hire 200-300, triple Denver office space – The Denver Post". September 28, 2015. http://www.denverpost.com/2015/09/28/ibotta-plans-to-hire-200-300-triple-denver-office-space-2/. 
  12. Perez, Sarah (September 30, 2015). "Mobile Savings App Ibotta Scores $40 Million". https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/30/mobile-savings-app-ibotta-scores-40-million/. 
  13. D, O. (2023-06-30). "Ibotta Users Numbers, Revenue and More in 2023" (in en-US). https://www.onlinedasher.com/ibotta-facts/. 
  14. Staff, The Hustler's Digest (2022-02-25). "How Does Ibotta Work - Perfect Guide To Ibotta For Beginners" (in en-US). https://hustlersdigest.com/how-does-ibotta-work/. 
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 "Ibotta expands (again!) by doubling office space in downtown Denver" (in en-US). The Denver Post. 2017-06-28. https://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/28/ibotta-expands-downtown-denver/. 
  16. "Ibotta, Inc. | Business Details | Better Business Bureau® Profile" (in en). https://www.bbb.org/. 
  17. couponsinthenews (2012-12-18). "Ibotta: "Earn Cash Every Time You Shop"" (in en-US). https://couponsinthenews.com/2012/12/18/ibotta-earn-cash-every-time-you-shop/. 
  18. 18.0 18.1 Chowdhry, Amit. "How Ibotta Is Helping Every Day Consumers Save Time And Money" (in en). https://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2018/01/29/how-ibotta-is-helping-every-day-consumers-save-time-and-money/. 
  19. Zappa, Joseph (2016-08-31). "Ibotta Announces In-App Purchasing Capability, Partnerships with Button, Jet, DoorDash | Street Fight" (in en-US). https://streetfightmag.com/2016/08/31/ibotta-announces-in-app-purchasing-capability-partnerships-with-button-jet-doordash/. 
  20. Perez, Sarah (September 30, 2015). "Mobile Savings App Ibotta Scores $40 Million". https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/30/mobile-savings-app-ibotta-scores-40-million/. 
  21. "Venture funding down in Colorado but firms still finding money – The Denver Post". January 14, 2016. http://www.denverpost.com/2016/01/14/venture-funding-down-in-colorado-but-firms-still-finding-money/. 
  22. "Ibotta Launches Dynamic Segmentation, Partners With LiveRamp". http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/275531/ibotta-launches-dynamic-segmentation-partners-wit.html. 
  23. Cohen, Patricia (2016-03-31). "The Cities on the Sunny Side of the American Economy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/business/economy/cities-where-us-economy-is-thriving.html. 
  24. 24.0 24.1 "Cashback and rebate startup Ibotta secures funding at a $1 billion valuation" (in en-US). 2019-08-06. https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/06/cashback-and-rebate-startup-ibotta-secures-funding-at-a-1-billion-valuation/. 
  25. 25.0 25.1 "Denver-Based Ibotta Reaches Milestone". January 31, 2019. https://www.cobizmag.com/Companies/Denver-Based-Ibotta-Reaches-Milestone/. 
  26. 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 Flanagan, Will (August 6, 2019). "Ibotta Raises Series D at $1B Valuation, Becomes Colorado's Latest Unicorn". https://www.americaninno.com/colorado/denver-startups/ibotta-raises-series-d-at-1b-valuation-becomes-colorados-latest-unicorn/. 
  27. "Denver's Ibotta To Plant Trees To Combat Paper Coupon Waste - CBS Colorado" (in en-US). 2020-04-14. https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/denver-ibotta-trees-coupons/. 
  28. "Ibotta partners with CPG brands for grocery give-back" (in en). https://chainstoreage.com/ibotta-partners-cpg-brands-grocery-give-back. 
  29. 29.0 29.1 "Ibotta Offers 3rd Annual Free Thanksgiving Dinner Program" (in en). https://progressivegrocer.com/ibotta-offers-3rd-annual-free-thanksgiving-dinner-program. 
  30. "How to get a family Thanksgiving dinner for free this year" (in en-US). 2022-11-01. https://fox4kc.com/business/how-to-get-a-family-thanksgiving-dinner-for-free-this-year/. 
  31. Pickering, Kirstie (2023-01-30). "With 130,000 users, these college students sold their shopping browser extension to Ibotta" (in en). https://theygotacquired.com/software/octoshop-acquired-by-ibotta/. 
  32. 32.0 32.1 "Walmart Adds Rewards Program as Shoppers Watch Budgets" (in en-US). 2022-08-24. https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2022/walmart-adds-rewards-program-as-shoppers-watch-budgets/. 
  33. Barba, Jacqueline (2022-04-12). "Ibotta Debuts New B2B Solutions, Brand Campaign" (in en). https://p2pi.com/ibotta-debuts-new-b2b-solutions-brand-campaign. 
  34. Mitchell, Richard (2023-01-20). "Dollar General partners with Ibotta to provide cash back rewards" (in en). https://www.supermarketnews.com/consumer-trends/dollar-general-partners-ibotta-provide-cash-back-rewards. 
  35. Carp, Sam (2020-11-26). "New Orleans Pelicans find jersey patch sponsor in Ibotta" (in en-GB). https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/new-orleans-pelicans-jersey-patch-sponsor-ibotta/. 
  36. "Ibotta renews official team jersey sponsorship with the New Orleans Pelicans" (in en). https://www.nba.com/pelicans/news/ibotta-renews-official-team-jersey-sponsorship-with-the-new-orleans-pelicans. 
  37. 37.0 37.1 "Williams F1 driver Logan Sargeant partners with Ibotta" (in en). https://www.blackbookmotorsport.com/news/williams-f1-driver-logan-sargeant-ibotta. 
  38. "UConn women's basketball star Paige Bueckers inks new NIL deal with Ibotta". https://www.ctinsider.com/sports/uconn-womens-basketball/article/paige-bueckers-huskies-nil-national-champions-18149845.php. 
  39. "Ibotta Celebrates Commitment to Denver by Becoming the Official Jersey Patch Sponsor of the 2023 NBA Champion Denver Nuggets" (in en-GB). 2023-10-24. https://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/ibotta-celebrates-commitment-to-denver-by-becoming-the-official-jersey-patch-sponsor-of-the-2023-nba-champion-denver-nuggets. 

External links