• Since its creation in March 2022, Cohort has signed 15+ clients in France and in the US including Etam, Socque Paris and L’Atelier Shelter
• The company’s business traction and seed funding demonstrate the tangible benefits Web3 brings to the marketing industry
• Cohort will use the funds to hire new team members, aiming to triple the team’s size in the coming 12 months, and boost its sales effort and product innovation to address the growing business demand

Paris, February 1st 2023 – Cohort, the customer engagement platform powered by NFTs, announced a €3.2 million seed funding led by IRIS alongside Axeleo Capital, with participation from Kima Ventures and 3founders, the web3 studio part of Hexa (eFounders) led by Florent Quinti, Thibaud Elzière, Quentin Nickmans and Amaury Sepulchre, as well as leading business angels such as Camille Tyan (Payplug), Guillaume Princen (Stripe), Brian O’Hagan (Sorare), and Marianne Gosset (The Socialite Family).

The funding round will allow the company co-founded by Séraphie de Tracy and Nathan Barraillé to accelerate its sales expansion in France and abroad, and grow its product and tech teams.

From left to right, Olivier Dumas (software engineer) Séraphie de Tracy (CEO and co-founder), Nathan Barraillé (CTO and co-founder) and Eugénie Martinez (business lead)

Leveraging Web3 to take the brand-customer relationship to new heights

Cohort’s NFT-powered platform provides a novel approach to marketing and demonstrates that web3 technology can result in practical benefits rather than just speculation. The start-up developed a SaaS-based solution that helps global and local brands create innovative experiences around their products, going beyond the usual membership card or loyalty points.

Brands can now offer, at scale, exclusive limited editions, unique services linked to a product, VIP experiences, and much more, to customers who increasingly expect more from their preferred brands. Relying on built-in privacy, Cohort guarantees that data and assets are owned by the user: customers can decide when and where to share their data with brands and businesses.

“A new era of customer engagement is emerging: customers demand more from brands and desire greater control over their data. Web3 is providing marketers with a unique opportunity to upgrade their proven marketing tactics in this new environment. With Cohort, brands can unlock a new stage of customer experience: offer a new class of hybrid products mixing physical and digital, provide exclusive membership to their communities, push collaborations across brands to new levels and create social dynamics around their digital assets, helping both acquisition and retention. Marketing as we know it is being completely reinvented - for the better.”

Séraphie de Tracy, co-founder and CEO of Cohort

Making web3 accessible to all brands and their customers with a unique “no code, no crypto, no wallet” solution

Today, only large companies and web3 native brands have access to NFT-powered marketing solutions, due to the cost and time commitment. Cohort’s technology makes web3 accessible to all brands and customers by removing barriers to adoption with a “no-code, no-crypto, no-wallet” solution.

Companies can launch NFT-powered campaigns in just a few hours and do not need to have any prior knowledge of crypto or even own a digital wallet. Cohort developed an array of integrations, including Salesforce and Shopify, enabling brands to offer their campaigns through their current channels.

“Cohort is the ideal partner to democratize NFTs. Our clients were able to benefit from an exclusive experience, mixing the physical with the digital. We had an incredible first success in May and decided to integrate Cohort solution within our mobile app over the summer.”

Céline Wargnier, Brand and Comms, Etam