CrowdTwist was founded in August 2009 by Irving Fain, Josh Bowen and Mike Montero. Fain and Bowen previously worked together at Clear Channel Digital, where Bowen was in charge of analytics and Fain oversaw the company's digital marketing and social platforms. They also supervised Clear Channel's marketing loyalty program. While at Clear Channel, the two decided to create a brand loyalty program that would encompass both online and offline activities. Bowen, in his previous work at MTV, had realized that few music artists truly knew their fans and believed a loyalty platform could solve that. The platform was originally conceived as a way for musicians to better connect with their fans. While planning the business, Fain and Bowen met Mike Montero. Montero had previously founded and sold two startup companies, Fotolog.net and Community Connect Inc. He joined the company as chief technology officer. CrowdTwist launched in 2010.
In late 2011, CrowdTwist was accepted into the inaugural class of the Techstars NYC program. Techstars is a startup accelerator that awards selected startups up to $18,000 in seed funding, three months of mentorship from successful entrepreneurs and investors, and the opportunity to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the program. CrowdTwist developed and expanded its program offerings through its participation in Techstars. The company was also featured on Bloomberg Television's TechStars reality show in 2011.
Platform
CrowdTwist is a white label omni-channel customer loyalty and data analytics platform. The platform provides brands with visibility into their customers' activities across digital, social, mobile and transactional channels. When customers join a loyalty program, their interactions with the brand across their social engagement, purchases and email activities are logged in their loyalty profile. Customers will then accrue points for actions that benefit a brand, for example when they purchase a product, like a Facebook profile or subscribe to email notifications. These points can be redeemed for rewards designed to increase a customer's brand loyalty. Examples of rewards include VIP concert tickets, brand merchandise and store coupons. With CrowdTwist, companies can analyze captured data to help clients understand their customers and personalize marketing efforts. The platform tracks customer attributes such as age, gender, location, social influence, recent online activity and online purchasing history. The information collected by CrowdTwist can help companies build consumer profiles and tailor their marketing and customer engagement programs.
Funding
CrowdTwist raised $6 million in Series A funding in September 2011 led by SoftBank Capital and Fairhaven Capital with participation from KBS+P Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments and several individual investors. In June 2014 CrowdTwist raised $9 million in Series B funding led by StarVest Partners. All existing investors, including SoftBank Capital and Fairhaven Capital contributed to the Series B funding round. The company has raised a total of $20 million to date.
