Tracksuit, the brand tracking startup, has announced a $6.8 million seed round led by Blackbird. Icehouse Ventures, Ascential, Shasta Ventures and marketing legend Mark Ritson also participated in the round. Tracksuit’s affordable and always-on brand tracking has taken the market research model and made it 10x easier to understand and 10x more affordable.
What is the market offering of Tracksuit?
After being bootstrapped for the first 20 months, the seed round marks Tracksuit’s first external investment. Tracksuit was founded in 2021 by Matt Herbert and Connor Archbold in partnership with TRA Labs, the venture studio arm of premier insights agency TRA, and innovation and venture studio Previously Unavailable. The businesses combined best-in-class market research and brand strategy methodology to create Tracksuit’s product.
“Our vision is for Tracksuit to be used in every strategic growth conversation for the best consumer brands of today and tomorrow. We exist to be the common language to measure, understand and communicate the value of brand building,” Connor Archbold commented. The two previously worked together at New Zealand software company Mish Guru, where Herbert was Head of Business Development and Archbold was Chief Operating Officer.
“I’ve loved building Tracksuit with Matt. We challenge each other in the best ways and we share a vision and passion for creating a team that is effective and empathetic. We want to change the world and hope that one of the ways we’ll do that is by showcasing a human and team-centric way to build a billion-dollar-business from New Zealand,” Archbold said.
What is the market reach of Tracksuit?
Since launching in early 2021, Tracksuit has grown to 20 full-time employees and the business is now tracking over 1,300 brands across Australia, the US, UK and New Zealand.
“When we started Tracksuit 20 months ago, we built a cash-flow positive, bootstrapped business. When the demand for our product shot up, we went into investor conversations knowing we had the backing of an incredible team and strong metrics,” Matt Herbert said.
“The level of immediate demand for Tracksuit is indicative of the shift in consumer businesses, who are focusing less on immediate conversion and more on building long-term growth through highly effective, creative marketing,” Matt Herbert further commented.
Tracksuit is already the chosen brand tracking solution for over 180 brands and some of Australia and New Zealand’s brand leaders, like Allpress Global Brand Lead, Rob Lockyear.
“Allpress has always been a brand led coffee company. Until using Tracksuit we had no idea what impact our brand spend was having on awareness, consideration and preference in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom against our key competitors,” Matt further said.
What were the investor’s thoughts on Tracksuit?
This gives businesses the power to make data-driven decisions at a fraction of the cost of traditional brand tracking. Blackbird, which has backed companies like Canva since 2012, knows the power of investing in brand and is backing Tracksuit with a $3.6m investment.
“Strong brands are the difference between good companies and great companies – whether they’re selling physical products or software,” said Phoebe Harrop, Principal at Blackbird.
“The magic of Tracksuit is giving companies across every industry a common language for measuring, talking about and investing in brand health. We’re delighted to partner with the Tracksuit team as they empower marketers across the globe with their product and create a new category of data-driven brand awareness,” said Phoebe Harrop further commented.
Tracksuit will be using this capital raise to fuel its growth into new global markets and hire the best talent across Auckland, Sydney, New York and London. To find out more about how Tracksuit champions brands and the people building them, please visit the website.
