The entrepreneur behind innovative tech start-up Airtime Rewards has said the company’s loyalty programme could rival the likes of Nectar and expand worldwide.
Airtime Rewards helps retailers such as Waitrose and Debenhams build customer loyalty by providing an innovative digital rewards-based service.
It removes the need to carry loyalty cards by linking a person’s mobile phone and their bank card.
The Manchester- and London-based company has recently secured a £1m investment, including £750,000 from NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund managed by Maven Capital Partners.
Following news of the investment, co-founder and CEO Adam Ward told BusinessCloud of plans to tap into other verticals including fast fashion, travel and hospitality.
“We have a very valuable and growing rewards programme and we believe this can rival the likes of Nectar and similar [products],” he said. “There is no reason why this can’t launch overseas too.
“The rewards market is also significantly in need of updating. We are well-placed to open up our platform capability to allow other programs to offer Airtime Rewards, so who knows – maybe later this year you might be able to use your Nectar points to reduce your mobile phone bill.”
Ward will be speaking at BusinessCloud’s ‘The Future of FinTech’ breakfast events in London and Manchester on 12 July and 19 July, respectively.
In the short-term, Airtime Rewards is aiming to grow the number of users on its programme and create 12 new jobs.
“The new jobs will mainly be in Manchester where we have just moved into our new HQ,” said Ward.
“We run our technical, product and operations functions from Manchester and the roles will be across a mixture of these departments.”
Ward described 2017 as a pivotal year for the business, during which the company proved there was a “clear consumer and retailer demand” for its technology.