store2be is the online booking platform for offline promotion and advertising spaces. It offers companies and brands efficient, measurable and scalable live communication in the offline world. The Berlin-based startup today announced its first funding round with a total investment value in the high six figures.
On store2be’s online platform, customers can choose from over 1,000 bookable spaces for promotional activities with guaranteed customer reach located in shopping centres and at independent retailers (store-in-store), fitness studios, airports, institutes of higher education, cinemas and events. The place depends on needs of particular company and the best chances of reaching its target group. store2be’s customers include online companies Amorelie, Glossybox, Pets Deli and more. They all have one thing in common – they seek to activate new customer segments using temporary offline locations and strengthen their own brand. Producers of consumer goods who are interested in establishing direct contact with their end customers or carrying out promotional campaigns also use store2be for spontaneous advertising and promotion.
store2be was founded in 2015 in the context of the Karlsruhe-based incubator CyberLab and has been officially headquartered in Berlin since summer 2016. The mission of the four founders is to enable measurable and scalable live communication directed at precise target groups for promotional action spaces that can be booked in a highly flexible manner. Live communication refers to direct dialogue with potential customers in the scope of offline advertising and promotional actions. The most unique aspect of store2be’s approach is its data-based integration of live communication in the overall marketing mix. By analysing customer traffic and the amount of time spent by customers at particular sites, store2be makes live communication measureable.
Co-founder and managing director of store2be Dr. Marlon Braumann explains: “Direct communication with customers is becoming more and more important in an increasingly digital world for creating positive market experience and strengthening relationship with the brand. We are very happy that investors share our vision of eventful live communication, that is able to reach target groups in a precise manner. We are also very pleased to have laid the foundation for the further development of store2be with this financial support.”
The circle of investors involved in the first funding round includes Project A, Global Founders Capital, Perikles Ventures with Dr. Adrian Kiehn, WWM with Dr. Christian Coppeneur-Gülz and some others.
Dr. Florian Heinemann, managing partner of Project A Ventures stated: “Due to the minimal transaction costs, store2be offers advertisers the possibility to incorporate offline promotional spaces in their usual marketing mix and to evaluate these efforts with the help of uniform KPIs. We see a great amount of potential in general in the linking of digital and offline marketing and store2be’s solution represents a very promising approach in this connection.”
