Tracksuit lands $20.5 million to help conquer US and UK markets

New Zealand startup Tracksuit has announced the closure of a $20.5 million Series A. The round was co-led by Silicon Valley-based firms Altos Ventures and Footwork, signaling overseas investor confidence in Tracksuit’s potential and plans for growth.

The funding round also saw participation from Tim Brown, co-founder of Allbirds, Bree Johnson, co-founder of Frank Body, and Lenny Rachitsky, former Airbnb executive.

It also follows a $6.8 million seed round, led by Blackbird, in early 2023.

Co-founded in 2021 by Connor Archbold and Matt Herbert, who jointly hold the position of CEO, Tracksuit aims to simplify and make brand tracking accessible to companies of various sizes.

Currently valued at $142.9 million and having achieved an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $9.5 million in under three years, Tracksuit’s trajectory showcases the market’s appetite for new solutions in brand tracking and analytics.

This infusion of capital is expected to bolster Tracksuit’s expansion efforts, particularly into the US and UK, where the demand for sophisticated brand analytics tools is reportedly growing.

Tailoring Tracksuit to US and UK markets

According to co-founder and co-CEO Connor Archbold, Tracksuit’s approach to entering and scaling in the US and UK involves a deep understanding of each market’s unique needs and nuances. The company also approaches it with a bootstrapping mindset.

“We let word of mouth do its job,” Archbold said on a call with SmartCompany.

“About a year ago we started signing up US customers, but just like if they’d heard of us.”

According to Archbold, the pair took a small trip to the US and signed on roughly 60 customers based off personal meetings.

“We didn’t really hire anyone, we didn’t lean in, we didn’t do any marketing, we didn’t spend anything. And then in the last few months of last year, I went to New York and took my family over and we built a small go-to-market team in New York,” Archbold said.

From there Tracksuit built case studies from its early US customers. Archbold said this slow approach was due to lessons learned from previous startup ventures where a lot of cash was burned on marketing in new geographies before obtaining the proof points.

“We’ve taken our time and learned from those early customers about a market fit, what changes we need to make in the product, whether they like it or whether they don’t like it, is the problem the same?” Archbold said.

“And then now we’re in a place where, if we market, we have the case studies and we’ve made the changes we need to make.”

Upcoming features and innovation

The funds from the Series A round are earmarked for further development of Tracksuit’s platform, as well as the aforementioned rollout to other international markets.

Tracksuit’s approach has been to offer a more accessible and user-friendly platform for brand tracking, aiming to disrupt traditional market research methods by providing data that is both insightful and actionable for brands.

Looking ahead, Tracksuit is not just focusing on maintaining its position as the most affordable brand tracker but is aiming to become the best in its domain.

This transition is underscored by significant investments in new features that enhance customer value, such as integrating AI to provide more actionable insights and automated summaries of brand performance.

“We have this huge pool of data and we’re able to pull out things that people should be focused on. Rather than just looking at all of the dashboards and trying to find out what’s interesting, we can point them to the right areas,” Archbold said.

“We can also summarise how their brand is performing versus their competitor’s brands and where the opportunities are.

It’s not entirely clear when the rollout of new features will be, but it will be sometime in the near future.

“Our focus after raising this money is on driving customer value. We’re switching from thinking about being the most affordable brand tracker to being the best,” Archbold said.