AUCKLAND, Tuesday: Brand tracking startup Tracksuit has raised $7.5 million in its first-ever funding round. The round was led by Blackbird who invested $4 million. Icehouse Ventures, Ascential, Shasta Ventures and marketing legend Mark Ritson also participated in the round.
Tracksuit founder Connor Archbold said: “Tracksuit’s affordable and always-on brand tracking has taken the market research model and made it 10x easier to understand and 10x more affordable.
“This gives businesses the power to make data-driven decisions around brand marketing at a fraction of the cost of traditional brand tracking.
Lead investor Blackbird, which has backed companies like Canva since 2012, understands the power of investing in brand and is backing Tracksuit with a $4 million investment.
“Strong brands are the difference between good companies and great companies – whether they’re selling physical products or software.
“The magic of Tracksuit is giving companies across every industry a common language for measuring, talking about and investing in brand health.”
Blackbird principal Phoebe Harrop said: “We’re delighted to partner with the Tracksuit team as they empower marketers across the globe with their product and create a new category of data-driven brand awareness.”
After being bootstrapped for the first 20 months, the round marks Tracksuit’s first external investment.
Tracksuit was founded in 2021 by Matt Herbert and Connor Archbold in partnership with TRA Labs, the venture studio arm of premier insights agency TRA, and innovation and venture studio Previously Unavailable.
The businesses combined best-in-class market research and brand strategy methodology to create Tracksuit’s product.
“Since launching in 2021, Tracksuit has grown to 20 fulltime employees and the business is now tracking 1300 brands across AU, the US, the UK and NZ.”
“Our vision is for Tracksuit to be used in every strategic growth conversation for the best consumer brands of today and tomorrow,” Archbold says. “We exist to be the common language to measure, understand and communicate the value of brand building.”
The two previously worked together at New Zealand software company Mish Guru, where Herbert was Head of Business Development and Archbold was Chief Operating Officer.
“I’ve loved building Tracksuit with Matt. We challenge each other in the best ways and we share a vision and passion for creating a team and workplace that is both highly effective and highly empathetic. We want to change the world and we hope that one of the ways we’ll do that is by showcasing a very human and team-centric way to build a billion-dollar-business from New Zealand,” Archbold says.
Since launching in early 2021, Tracksuit has grown to 20 full-time employees and the business is now tracking more than 1,300 brands across Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
“When we started Tracksuit 20 months ago, we built a cashflow positive, bootstrapped business. When the demand for our product skyrocketed, we went into investor conversations with confidence knowing we had the backing of an incredible team and strong metrics,” Matt says.
“The level of immediate demand for Tracksuit is indicative of the shift in consumer businesses, who are focusing less on immediate conversion and more on building long-term growth through highly effective, creative marketing.”
Tracksuit is already the chosen brand tracking solution for more than 180 consumer brands and some of Australia and New Zealand’s best brand leaders, including Allpress Global Brand Lead, Rob Lockyear.
“Allpress has always been a brand led coffee company. Until using Tracksuit we had no idea what impact our brand spend was having on awareness, consideration and preference in NZ, AU and the UK against our key competitors.”
Tracksuit will be using this capital to fuel its growth into new markets and hire the best talent across Auckland, Sydney, New York and London.
About Tracksuit
Tracksuit is” a new way for companies to measure, understand and communicate the value of brand”. Built from best-in-class methodology. Tracksuit surveys thousands of people each week from panels around the world so that brands can track their consumer awareness, consideration and preference across different markets and demographics, while also benchmarking themselves against their competitors.
About TRA Labs
TRA Labs is a venture studio that partners with founders to develop leading research-tech startups, launched in 2016 by insights group TRA.
About Previously Unavailable
Grey Lynn-based Previously Unavailable is an innovation and venture studio founded by James Hurman in 2014. Its team is made up of experienced entrepreneurs, researchers, strategists and designers using a human-centred, design-led approach. Previously Unavailable has helped create the brand strategy for AF Drinks, Odd Company, Simplicity Kiwisaver and Tracksuit.
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