Steady tech progress; Closed first distribution deal; £504k funding committed; Won UEZ Fintech competition.

In summary:

November was a month of steady progress on many fronts.

Here are the highlights (details available on request):

Customers:

  • Connected and active customers up 8.6% month-on-month (‘m-o-m’), whilst in private beta and not actively letting any new customers in.
  • Preparations to launch in the Apple AppStore in Dec are on track.
  • Exciting scaling plans for Q1 next year, with marketing reach of 550k+ confirmed.

Merchants / Retailers:

  • Now have 8 paying partners confirmed. (against target of 10 by end of year)
  • 75 live conversations (flat m-o-m as we focused on conversion);
  • Expecting 21 to convert with 5 deals very near.

Product:

  • 89.1% of users have received at least one upside (83% last month).
  • The total number of upsides paid in Nov is up 73% m-o-m as customers gravitate towards partner brands.
  • The AOV (‘average order value’ - the key metric for our Merchant Partners) at in-scope partners were up 70.8% against the baseline.

Tech:

  • Total transactions processed up 12% m-o-m.
  • Auto-match rate now up to 85% (as our models keep improving).
  • No major incidents: Production stability and performance remains good.

Ops:

  • 82.6% straight through onboarding.
  • Customer feedback scores hold at 5 out of 5. With only 6 account closures since launch.

Team:

  • Morale remains high. November was a good month.

Distribution:

  • We closed our first distribution deal. This is a big win and will give us access to c350k+ new users.

University of Essex (UEZ):

  • Upside was chosen as the Fintech Winner of the Angels@Essex startup competition.
  • Earning us investment and access to the UEZ students, staff and alumni. That’s 153k+ future Upsiders.

Funding:

  • c£504k now committed.
  • New Investors joining includes ex-Growth Hacker of Honey (browser extension) and Acorns (US).
  • Renewed interest from 7 VCs in Nov.