Consumers love saving money. But there are so many ways to do it that you can burn a lot of time finding those small, but juicy incentives.
That's where Dosh comes in. The Austin-based startup's app automatically gives people cash back when they make purchases with connected credit or debit cards at participating businesses.
The company operates in a crowded space. But on Thursday it announced it has closed a $44 million Series A financing round led by Goodwater Capital, PayPal and others. It appears to be the largest Series A for an Austin startup in recent memory. Opcity's $27 million Series A last year appears to be the closest comparison.
The Dosh app has been highly ranked in app stores, and the company says it had 3 million new users join the platform in the past four months -- along with thousands of merchants tying into Dosh's cash back offers.
Dosh CEO Ryan Wuerch told Austin Inno the new money will help Dosh make key hires to expand and improve the AI technologies it is using to use consumer information to help find those consumers the most relevant deals at opportune times.
“The more we know our consumers, the more we can have them be the ones that are gaining the benefit from this overall shift of $100 billion-plus of wasted advertising dollars,” he said.
Wuerch said he and his team are entirely focused on keeping consumers at the center of their growth -- it has no current goals for an IPO or acquisition.
He also said the funding could also help draw more capital to Austin.
“We want to be one of the companies that helps Austin be seen as a great investment hotbed for the largest investors, VCs, private equity firms to come and say ‘listen, Austin is the city..." he said. “I personally believe that Austin is the very best next place in this country to garner the largest investments from outside of Austin or outside the Valley and outside New York City."
Dosh is among Austin's fastest-growing companies, and it has accumulated some of the city's top engineering and tech talent.
Dosh says it is now the largest card-linked cash-back app in the nation. Its deal partners include Sam's Club, Papa John's, Mattress Firm, Chili's and thousands of other franchises and independent businesses. When you shop at partnering businesses, Dosh automatically gives your Dosh account a rebate. Then, you can shift that accumulated rebate money into your checking account or choose to donate it to charity.
Dosh has previously raised $18.4 million since its 2015 founding. Most recently, it added $4.9 million in its fourth seed round. Investors in that included Goodwater Capital, Extol Capital and Austin’s Next Coast Ventures.
“We’re not sleeping until we move billions of dollars to millions of people," Wuerch said. "We’re just not.”
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story citied a TechCrunch post in which a source noted a possible valuation of the company. A Dosh representative says the valuation was purely speculative. We have removed the figure from the story.
