Badger steps up to help local merchants gain visibility

Badger, the shared loyalty and marketing app for neighbourhood shops, is announcing a pre-seed round led by Apolo, the startup studio of QoQa, alongside business angels. The aim: give merchants the same superpowers as the big chains, without the complexity.

Badger has just closed its first funding round

In June 2024 we started with a simple idea: replace the paper loyalty card with a digital experience that actually works. Two pioneering businesses in Lausanne, PokeMe and The Hideaway, agreed to test our vision.

Eighteen months later, the usage results are in and they are beyond what we expected:

We have brought together 150 partner shops, attracted 45'000 users, recorded 250'000 visits, accumulated 380'000 badges and made 28'000 rewards claimable. The result: customers come back more than 2.5 times a month on average to their favourite places.

Badger creates a measurable loop of recurrence, in the service of livelier shopping streets. It is proof that when you strengthen the natural bond between merchants and customers, the whole community comes back to life. Thank you above all to you, the merchants, for that trust!

Thank you to every business that trusted us over this first year! Your feedback, your commitment and your suggestions do a great deal for the growth of our community and for reaching these encouraging results!

Why now

The moment is critical. Giants like Starbucks and McDonald's have long relied on sophisticated loyalty platforms to generate repeat visits and boost their visibility. Independents, meanwhile, are still wrestling with paper cards or Instagram accounts disconnected from their real customers.

Badger changes that by giving local merchants equivalent digital power: shared, so everyone benefits from the strength of the network; simplified, for daily use; and made playful, to engage their customers for the long run.

Why our investors believe in Badger

This first round was led by Apolo (the startup studio of QoQa), who share our vision deeply. As Nicolas Rattaz, Managing Partner at Apolo, puts it:

"Badger solves a very concrete problem with a simple, scalable solution that brings direct value to merchants and to their customers alike. This is exactly the kind of startup we want to back: a clear problem, solid execution, and a team with vision and the ability to adapt."

We are proud to have them alongside us for this adventure.

The Apolo & Badger Team

What comes next?

Thanks to this funding, we are accelerating on two fronts:

Product: launching marketing and communication tools designed specifically for merchants, hyper-local discovery for consumers, and a good deal more.

Expansion: consolidating our presence in French-speaking Switzerland. In particular, growing the Badger community in cities such as Sion, Neuchâtel and Geneva, then entering the German-speaking market.

Join us

If you are a merchant, now is the moment to write what comes next with Badger: turn your efforts into new opportunities for growth and build the future of local retail together. If you are a customer, the best way to support your favourite places is simple: badge, buy local and spread the word.

And if you are an investor or a partner and you share our vision, let us meet: the story is only beginning.

This is just the start.