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Lucra

Greenwich, US · Founded 2020 · Delaware corporation · 46 employees on LinkedIn · 13 known investors

Find your way into Lucra

381 people in our graph share verified history with the Lucra team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Michael McBrideunlockedknows Dylan Robbins · together at Stanford University Graduate School of Business (overlapped)
×10knows the team · via Stanford University Graduate School of Business
knows the team · via Duke University

Lucra is a competitive loyalty platform that provides brands an SDK to run live social competitions — tournaments, peer-vs-peer contests, and mini games — natively inside their existing app or website. It acts as Merchant of Record for real-money skill competitions, handling licensing, KYC/AML, fraud monitoring, and dispute resolution across 42 U.S. states.

Also known as Lucra · Lucra Partners With · Lucra Sports

Founders & leadership

Lucra was founded in 2020 by Dylan Robbins.

DRDylan Robbins
Dylan RobbinsinFounder and CEODylan Robbins founded Lucra, a competitive loyalty platform that provides brands with an SDK to run live social competitions and skill-based gaming experiences within their existing apps or websites. He attended Duke University and is based in the San Francisco area.
DW
Dennis WongNamed on SEC filing
AD
Anthony DisantiNamed on SEC filing

Investors · 13

Also in the syndicate · 3

ARKleadARK Invest Venture FundleadAstralis Capital

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$42.3M disclosed across 3 of 4 rounds · 2022–2026

  • $20MraisedApr 2026 · 3 sources

    ARK (lead), ARK Invest Venture Fund (lead)

    Source ↗
  • $10MraisedDec 2024 · 2 sources
    Source ↗
$12.3MraisedJun 2022 · 45 investors · Other Technology
Rule 506(b)
Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
  • Dennis WongDirector
  • Dylan RobbinsExecutive Officer, Director
  • Anthony DisantiDirector
Offering amount
$12.5M
Amount sold
$12.3M
First sale
Jan 2022
Incorporated
Corporation, Delaware, 2020
Federal exemptions
06b
Full filing on SEC EDGAR ↗

Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

Lucra operates a competitive loyalty platform that lets consumer brands embed social competition into products they already own. Its single SDK supports three formats: branded tournaments that a partner's own team launches and manages (free-to-play, real money, or rewards-based, running from a single night to a full season), peer-vs-peer competitions, and mini games. The experiences run natively inside the partner's existing app or site, with the brand controlling the front-end experience while Lucra supplies the underlying infrastructure.

The company positions the product as an alternative to transaction-based loyalty programs, arguing that competitive stakes — leaderboards, bragging rights — drive repeat engagement more effectively than transaction rewards. Lucra markets partner-reported outcomes including higher visit frequency, longer session or venue duration, higher revenue per user, and retention of competition-related value inside the partner's own ecosystem rather than leaking to third-party platforms.

Business model

Lucra sells its competition infrastructure to consumer brands and app operators, which embed it via SDK; Lucra acts as Merchant of Record for all real-money flows moving through partner experiences.

Traction

Named partners span multiple verticals: Bracketology (mobile gaming, cited at over 1 million total users and 4.8x higher retention than the industry average), Five Iron Golf, CLIQFIT, Skill Shot Golf, and ChessKings.

Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography

Market position

Lucra frames itself as the first platform offering brands infrastructure to own competitive, stakes-based loyalty rather than transaction-based rewards, operating as an embedded layer for partner apps rather than a consumer-facing destination.

Lucra bundles real-money competition compliance into the product — it holds the licenses and serves as Merchant of Record, handling KYC/AML, fraud monitoring, and dispute resolution — so partners can offer real-money skill contests without building or operating that stack themselves. Partner-facing messaging emphasizes that both the engagement and the funds stay inside the brand's own ecosystem.

Technology

An SDK that embeds tournaments, peer-vs-peer contests, and mini games natively into a partner's existing mobile app or website, together with the transactional and compliance layer for real-money play — licensing, KYC and AML, fraud monitoring, and dispute resolution.

Go-to-market

Direct partnership sales to brands, supported by published customer case studies across mobile gaming, fitness, competitive social, and recreational sports verticals, with an inbound contact channel on the company site.

Consumer brands and operators with existing engaged audiences, including mobile gaming and fan-engagement apps, fitness platforms, golf and recreational sports venues, bars with bar-sports offerings, and online chess communities.

Geography

Real-money skill competitions are available in 42 U.S. states.

Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Key figures

latest reported
App downloadsApr 2024150,000 downloads
Bracketology retention vs industry averageJan 20254.8x higher retention than industry average
Bracketology total userbaseJan 20251,000,000 users
Handle collectedApr 2024$20M
HeadcountAug 202646
Headcount rangeJan 202611-50
States where contests are availableApr 202444 US states
Total funding (aggregator listing)Jan 2026$41.6M
Total funding raised (reported)Apr 2024$14M
Unique contests facilitatedApr 2024more than 1,000,000
Unique tournament signups (on pace for)Apr 2026on pace to surpass 1 million in 2026
US states where real-money skill competitions are availableJan 202542 states

Company-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.

Competitors · 1

by search overlap

Companies competing with Lucra for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.

Timeline · 11

launches, deals, and filings
Aug 2026
Channel agreement with Gainey Sports Ventures

Lucra struck a strategic channel deal with Scottsdale, Arizona-based sports agency Gainey Sports Ventures, gaining access to its client network to distribute Lucra's social gaming products.

source ↗

Jul 2026
Partnership with klyq to launch klyq Arcade on smart TVs

Lucra and klyq, NBTV's shoppable TV platform, announced the klyq Arcade, embedding Lucra-powered mini games into connected TV; klyq is slated to be live on over 100 million Samsung televisions, and cash winnings can convert into klyq spending credit.

source ↗

Jul 2026
Partnership with Grass League

Lucra will power real-money skill-based trivia and free-to-play live in-game competitions around Grass League par-3 golf events, starting with the 2026 Summer Grind on September 4-6 at Goat Hill Park in Oceanside, California.

source ↗

May 2026
Launch of Lucra Arcade and strategic investment in CRWN

Lucra launched Lucra Arcade, a library of 90-second skill-based mini games available as a standalone App Store app and as an embeddable white-label product, and made a strategic investment in Poland-based mobile games studio CRWN, with CEO Dylan Robbins joining CRWN's board.

source ↗

Jan 2025
Bracketology adopts Lucra to add real rewards for reality TV fan audience

Case study describes Bracketology, a mobile gaming app with a 1M+ userbase, integrating Lucra to monetize an engaged audience and make the experience more shareable and rewarding; reported 4.8x higher retention than industry average.

source ↗

Jan 2025
CLIQFIT integrates Lucra for competitive fitness challenges

Case study describing CliqFit using Lucra to turn fitness accountability into competitive challenges between users.

source ↗

Jan 2025
ChessKings adds Lucra competition infrastructure

ChessKings founder John Iavarone states Lucra provided the infrastructure to bring competitive play to its chess community.

source ↗

Jan 2025
Five Iron Golf uses Lucra for cross-location competition

Case study on Five Iron Golf powering competition across its venues with Lucra, keeping competitive play and funds within the Five Iron Golf ecosystem.

source ↗

Jan 2025
Skill Shot Golf enables nationwide cash competitions via Lucra

Case study on Skill Shot Golf converting on-course scoring into nationwide cash competitions.

source ↗

Apr 2024
Dave & Buster's to add Lucra-powered social wagering to its app

Dave & Buster's announced it would use Lucra's gamification technology to let loyalty members make friendly real-money contests on arcade games such as Hot Shots basketball and Skee-Ball through the company's app.

source ↗

Jan 2024
Deals with DUPR and TennisOne

Lucra signed agreements with pickleball ratings system DUPR and tennis app TennisOne to allow players to compete against one another for real money.

source ↗

Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.

Legal entities · 1

corporate structure
LucraDelaware

In the news

Research sources · 8

primary sources listed

8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

What does Lucra do?
Lucra provides brands an SDK for running real-money and free-to-play skill competitions inside their own apps and websites.
Who founded Lucra?
Lucra was founded by Dylan Robbins in 2020.
Who are Lucra's investors?
Lucra's investors include 7GC & Co, Raptor Group, SeventySix Capital, The MBA Fund, Western Technology Investment, Alumni Ventures, Harlo Equity Partners, Simplex Ventures and 2 more.
How much funding has Lucra raised?
Lucra has disclosed $42.3M raised across 3 of its 4 known rounds.
Where is Lucra headquartered?
Lucra is headquartered in Greenwich, US.