The human arsenal, as we know, is pretty expansive in its nature, and yet it doesn’t have anything more valuable than our tendency of growing on a consistent basis. This tendency, in particular, has allowed us to hit upon some huge milestones, with technology appearing as a unique member of the stated squad. The reason why technology’s credentials are so anomalous is largely down to its skill-set, which ushered us towards all the possibilities that we couldn’t have imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look beyond the surface, it becomes clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired by the way we applied those skills across a real-world environment. The latter component was, in fact, what gave the creation a spectrum-wide presence, and consequentially, kickstarted a tech revolution. This revolution, in turn, went on to scale up the human experience from every conceivable direction, but even after going so far, technology will somehow continue bringing the right goods to the table. This has only turned more evident over the recent past, and truth be told, a new piece of funding should do a lot to keep the stated trend well and truly alive.
Banyan, a platform for product purchase data that allows customers such as banks, fintechs, hotels and merchants to automate expense management and more, has successfully secured over $43 million in Series A financing, and it has done so at a valuation that is touted to be around “mid $100 million” range. Co-led by Fin Capital and M13, the round saw further participation coming from the likes of FIS Impact Ventures, TTV Capital, Bridge Bank (a division of Western Alliance Bank), More than Capital, Manifold, Motivate Venture Capital, Elizabeth Street Ventures, and Gaingels . According to certain reports, the company will use the newly-raised cash to facilitate product-related research and development, while a chunk of the funds will go towards bolstering its infrastructure growth. Apart from it, Banyan also plans on investing in a recruitment drive, which will take the company’s workforce to 50 employees by the end of 2022.
Founded in 2019, Banyan started out with an intention to help businesses use purchase data in various different ways. To do this job, the company created a network of “SKU-level” data, which allows an organization to leverage the stated information for purposes like fraud prevention, loyalty programs, card-linked offers, and much more. On the offers bit, Banyan’s platform is also well-equipped to organize, classify, standardize receipt data to enable merchants and their partners to target offers to specific items, categories and aisle-level subcategories they want to reward.
“In an environment where many consumers are tightening their belts and rethinking brand loyalty, item-level data can be a key for retailers to offer real savings leveraging strategic ‘aisle’ budgets, while also managing inventory levels and efficiently driving sales retention,” said Jehan Luth, CEO of Banyan. “Our investments will enable financial institutions to increase customer engagement by delivering personalized digital experiences, and enable merchants to streamline the purchase experience and create new sources of sales revenue along with improving their ability to manage inventories.”
Make no mistake, Banyan isn’t the only company in its niche, but there are a few key elements that set it apart. For instance, unlike many of its competitors, the New York-based company collects data directly from first-party sources. Furthermore, it doesn’t collect any personal information like user addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses “unless absolutely necessary” to deliver a service. Fair enough, this unique selling point has enabled the company in regards to serving more than 35,000 merchants, and consequentially, process over $400 billion GMV till date.