leal

Leal is a Bogota, Colombia-based retail technology company that provides customer engagement, loyalty and rewards infrastructure for merchants in Latin America. It works with business-to-consumer brands, e-commerce sites and financial institutions, enabling them to build a customer database and then offer cashback and rewards to shoppers on everyday purchases. The platform combines business analytics, CRM functionality and point-of-sale integration, plus campaign management tools for targeted communications.

On the consumer side, Leal operates an app that aggregates multiple loyalty programs into a single app/card, allowing users to earn and redeem rewards at participating merchants. Launched in 2016 as what the founders describe as the first loyalty points aggregator app for consumers in Colombia, it later added features such as scanning paper receipts from grocery purchases to earn Leal Coins redeemable for goods and services including gasoline and food delivery. A notable capability is tracking customer behavior and purchase patterns for shoppers who pay in cash, a segment that is otherwise difficult to measure.

The company shifted strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic, moving from a primarily B2B product toward a B2C consumer app focused on online and in-store cashback, after losing a large share of its brick-and-mortar merchant base during lockdowns.

Founding story

Co-founders Camilo Martinez and Florence Frech met during their two-year MBA at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, which they began in August 2013, and became partners after representing Kellogg at the MIT Latin American Start-up Competition. Martinez, from Bogota, is an industrial engineer and economist from Universidad de Los Andes who previously founded the tours and activities e-commerce Impulse Travel and led M&A origination in Bancolombia's investment banking division. Frech, from El Salvador, studied finance at the University of Notre Dame and worked at HSBC and at a boutique investment bank in El Salvador. Coming from the same industry, they identified that brands in Latin America were spending heavily on marketing campaigns that were not measurable or effective, and launched Leal in Colombia in 2016.

Business model

Leal sells software and loyalty infrastructure to merchants — B2C brands, e-commerce sites and financial institutions — that use the platform to identify, engage and reward customers, while operating a consumer-facing rewards app that aggregates loyalty programs. TechCrunch characterizes it as a SaaS marketing company, and following its 2024 round the company targeted $10 million in annual recurring revenue.

Recurring software revenue from affiliated merchants and brands using the platform; the company set a goal of reaching $10 million in annual recurring revenue after its January 2024 financing.

Traction

As of January 2024 the company reported working with more than 1,000 brands across 15 industries in eight countries and more than 6 million users, up from 1.5 million in 2020, with 3.5 million active users joining in the prior 12 months. In 2021 it reported more than 130 employees, 2.7 million registered users, operations in five countries and partnerships with over 500 brands. Total venture capital raised stood at $20.5 million as of January 2024.

Latest developments

In January 2024 Leal announced a $5 million round co-led by LEAP Global Partners and Rakuten Capital, with proceeds directed toward reaching $10 million in annual recurring revenue, deeper penetration in Mexico, omnichannel communications, improved data collection and automation of benefits, and AI and generative AI work on personalization, campaign experimentation, chatbots and content creation.