Claim raises $4M as a social network for earning and trading rewards with friends

A rewards app and social network called Claim raised $4 million in seed funding with Sequoia Capital as the lead investor. The startup wants to make shopping fun, rewarding, and social. With an invite-only beta launch in January, the app targets Boston college and university students.

Claim lets friends and users earn cash back, exchange rewards, and redeem them. The social network prioritizes real-world value and community over manufactured content and reposts.

CEO Sam Obletz and CTO Tap Stephenson founded the startup in November 2021. They met as Yale roommates and came up with Claim when they reunited in Harvard business school. Obletz and Stephenson began by defining digital ownership.

“We started Claim because we were really interested in what it meant to own something online,” Stephenson said. We saw this in Web3 and collectible sports. Online ownership has always existed, but not in a generalized way. We wondered: What would it mean to remove all friction from online ownership? That eventually led to a claim.”

The pair imagined a platform where you could earn real-world rewards linked to your credit card. They decided users should be able to share or exchange rewards. Obletz and Stephenson realized they were creating a new social mechanism as they developed these ideas.

Claim offers consumers a new value-based experience, like trading cards for brands. The startup claims to have made consumer rewards a multiplayer game that lets users save money and have new experiences.

Send a friend a free acai bowl from your favorite coffee shop or a streetwear t-shirt if they haven’t tried a brand you love. Exchange rewards, try new places, and earn status by shopping at brands. Claim has a weekly “drop” where users unwrap a new reward. Redeem, gift, or trade rewards with friends.

Claim aims to help consumers, but it also helps marketers and brands reach new customers without bombarding them with Google, Instagram, and TikTok ads. Claim lets consumers discover brands through friend rewards. The startup believes that trying a product is better than an ad for reaching new customers.

“We make it so much easier for marketers,” Obletz said. “We can find customers by where they and their friends shop. We can give them a reward to try their brand for the first time, which is crucial because we’re bringing in real new customers, and we can show them how effective that reward was based on spend. So we created this insanely simple marketing tool.”

The startup works with Fortune 500 companies like PepsiCo and local restaurants like Boston’s Life Alive.

Claim reports that one partner on its platform reached 97% of their new customer goal in half the expected time and another acquired customers with a 35% repeat rate in 30 days.

Claim targets Gen Z as its entire user base because it believes they value authenticity and are tired of advertising, especially when every social media post seems sponsored. The startup plans to test in Boston, where it has over 10,000 users, before expanding nationally.

The company plans to hire new employees and grow its eight-person team over the next year with the new funding. Claim will also use the funding for engineering testing and learning before entering new markets.

Susa Ventures and Box Group led a $2 million pre-seed round before the seed round. Claim raised funds from 6th Man Venture, Reflexive Capital, A* Capital, GSW Ventures, The Kraft Group, and others.