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Index Secures $19M Series B Funding Led by General Catalyst Partners to Bring the Advantages of Ecommerce In-StoreSAN FRANCISCO, June 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Index, a leading retail software company that brings measurement and personalization to the offline world, announced today that it has raised $19 million in Series B funding led by General Catalyst, along with Datalogix founder Rob Gierkink. The new capital will be used to accelerate Index's deployment to grocery, apparel and quick-service retail environments; reach new customers across the U.S.; and grow its engineering, product and business teams. Gierkink, an XIR (Executive-in-Residence) at General Catalyst, will chair Index's board of directors. David Fialkow, General Catalyst co-founder and managing director, also is joining Index's board. "Rob and David's tremendous expertise will help us transform offline retail and continue to bring ecommerce advantages to brick-and-mortar environments," said Jonathan Wall, Index co-founder and CTO. "The commerce ecosystem cannot work to its full potential until retailers recognize, remember and reward their customers in-store." As chairman of the board, Gierkink will leverage his deep domain expertise to help Index accelerate its growth. Prior to founding Datalogix, Gierkink co-founded three of the world's largest cross-merchant loyalty programs: Loyalty Management Group (LMG), which operates Nectar in the United Kingdom; Air Miles Reward Program in Canada; and Air Miles Program in the Netherlands. Datalogix, which was hatched at General Catalyst and then acquired by Oracle in 2014, aggregates and provides insights on over $2 trillion in consumer spending to deliver purchase-based targeting and drive more sales. "When we started Air Miles, Nectar and Datalogix, our aim was to help retailers connect with their customers, and Index is transforming the way retailers engage with shoppers," said Gierkink. "We have a shared vision of reinventing retail and are excited to work with Index during the next phase of its growth." "Index is tackling one of retail's most complex challenges — delivering truly personalized, data-driven, cross-channel shopping experiences," said Fialkow. "Marc and Jonathan have established Index as an emerging leader in a space we know well through our experience growing Datalogix with Rob. We are thrilled to collaborate with the Index team and again with Rob to shape the next generation of commerce." Index's platform enables retailers to:
This May, The Fresh Market, which operates 177 stores in 24 states, deployed an e-receipt program using Index technology. The program offers The Fresh Market customers personalized communications and recommendations, in addition to emailed receipts. Preliminary results show that The Fresh Market is on track to significantly increase the number of customers signed up for its email communications, and the program offers potential for further personalized offers and rewards in the near future. "We believe that personalized marketing offers great potential to engage our customers with more relevant communication," said Chris Miller, Vice President, Strategy and Marketing at The Fresh Market. "Through our partnership with Index, we are eager to leverage insights about our customers' preferences and purchase behavior, allowing us to engage each individual around our brand in increasingly customized ways." Fairway Market, a leading food retailing destination in the Greater New York City metropolitan area, has also deployed Index across all locations. "Since implementation, Index has supplied a secure transmission of data and reduced our gateway cost by 35 percent," said Maureen Minard, CIO of Fairway Market. "Having the ability to reach our customers in a new way will move us towards increased customer interaction." Index's full set of solutions—including payments, security, marketing, analytics and loyalty—enables grocery, apparel and quick service retailers to future-proof payments and modernize their business. Index leverages strong partnerships with leading POS platforms, PIN pad providers and payment processors to continue to elevate the in-store experience and transform online and offline retail. "Together with Rob, David and the General Catalyst team, we're excited to help power the next generation of physical retail," said Marc Freed-Finnegan, Index co-founder and CEO. "We have a tremendous team that's passionate about helping retailers reconcile customer experiences across channels and build lifelong customer loyalty." To learn more about Index, visit www.index.com. About Index About General Catalyst Partners For more information, visit: www.generalcatalyst.com or www.twitter.com/gcvp. About The Fresh Market About Fairway Media Contacts Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160630/385363
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