Brand tracking startup Tracksuit raises $7.5m

Tracksuit, a Kiwi brand tracking startup, has raised $7.5 Million in its first capital raising. It attracted investment from Blackbird, an Australasian venture capital firm.

Founded in 2021 in partnership by TRA and Matt Herbert
Labs and Previously unavailable. The company has quickly expanded to Australia, the US and UK with companies like Simplicity, Sharesies, Allpress joining the fray to use its services.

Herbert explained that the company was competing with the major market research firms and was offering a service that was normally only available to large corporations, but was pitching it to smaller to medium-sized enterprises.

The company employs around 25 people, most of whom are based in Auckland. However, the funding would be used to expand the business.

“It is being used to scale the growth and then to hire talent both in NZ, Australia, and the US markets that we are focused on.

“We started in New Zealand quite quickly we had brands like Allpress and a handful of others saying NZ is great but we have also got growing brands in these markets.

“Right from the start we said how do we make sure we build Tracksuit to scale globally. These are the four. [markets] that our main focus is on for this next 12 month period.”

The company is hiring and expanding at a time when many software-as-a-service businesses are looking to tighten their belts.

Herbert claimed that up to this capital raising, the founders had successfully bootstrapped their business, making it very capital-efficient.

“I feel quite fortunate with the way that we have built Tracksuit being bootstrapped being quite capital-efficient to be in a position now that we can be hiring and we have been hiring great people.”

The company now tracks 1300 brands around the globe.

Herbert stated that its customers were companies who wanted to build their brand and make a case for investment.

“We offer a common language for companies to measure, understand and communicate the value of their brand. What people measure gets managed and so what we are doing at Tracksuit is we have gone and reinvented the back end of how market research gets done and in a way that adds scale.”

Herbert explained that thousands of surveys were sent to customers every week. They focused on how to build a brand and what the market was like.

Some companies internationally have spoken out about a decrease in advertising budgets and marketing spending due to the tougher global economic times.

Herbert stated that there is still an opportunity for brands to increase their market share and awareness during times like these.

“At Tracksuit we want to support that growth in the right areas but we also want to make sure the measurement and the tracking that Tracksuit is doing is also unlocking additional spend that can allow companies to use their marketing budget more effectively and efficiently.

“We think that mid-market consumer brand is really looking at that. And then also brands that may have done a piece of research once or twice a year – Tracksuit is how we keep this measurement online – while also making sure we can grow those businesses through the next couple of years.”

Herbert is a veteran of start-ups and helped Uber establish its brand in New Zealand in its early days.

He explained that the brand tracking purpose of Tracksuit was what gave Tracksuit its name.

“Our approach is fun and it has been a name which we thought fit quite well in terms of tracking brands and in a way that we can live and breath that.”

Staff are permitted to wear their trackies into the office.

“There are tracksuits – we also gave out 100 for the first customers – and there was the Icehouse Ventures showcase at Spark Arena… Connor and my co-founder went up on stage in purple tracksuits. We took the team out wearing tracksuits when everyone else was wearing black tie.”