Belly Secures $10 Million in Series B Funding by Andreessen Horowitz

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Belly, a rapidly-growing start-up that is effectively redefining customer loyalty for small businesses, announced today that it has received a $10 million Series B round of venture capital financing from Andreessen Horowitz (www.a16z.com). The new funds will be used to fuel development for the loyalty platform including expansion into new cities, new partnerships, and new product development. The company also announced that Jeff Jordan, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, former chairman and CEO of OpenTable and former president of PayPal, will join the Board.

“Portrait Of You And Your Dog On Our Wall, Red 7 Salon’s (www.red7salon.com) “Shave Our Heads With A 1-On-1 Owner Buzz Cut”

“The investment from Andreessen Horowitz is an endorsement of Belly’s highly tailored approach to building loyalty in an extremely competitive environment,” said Logan LaHive, Founder & CEO of Belly. “We’re eliminating over-stuffed wallets filled with unused punch cards. With Belly, customers have the option of accessing the Belly loyalty network via the mobile app or a physical card as they earn points toward meaningful rewards. By operating at the intersection of offline and online commerce, Belly is well-positioned to be the number one brand in loyalty.”

“Belly is the market leader in digitizing the loyalty programs of real world merchants,” said Jeff Jordan, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and newly added member of Belly’s Board of Directors. “They are enabling merchants and customers to connect in radically more sophisticated ways, to the strong benefit of both.” Read more about Belly on Jeff’s blog post “Fire in the Belly.”

Belly is hyper-focused on creating the most engaging relationships between merchants and customers. The company partners with merchants to design and implement lasting rewards programs that reflect the personality and culture of each business and appeals to its customers. Belly users can achieve rewards they actually want and enjoy pursuing, including: Dog-A-Holic’s (www.dog-a-holics.com) “Portrait Of You And Your Dog On Our Wall, Red 7 Salon’s (www.red7salon.com) “Shave Our Heads With A 1-On-1 Owner Buzz Cut” and Molly’s Cupcakes’ (www.mollyscupcakes.com) “Personal Dance Lesson From Staff Member.” Belly supplies merchants with the technology, analytics and training needed to build a loyalty program entirely customized for their business.

Launched in August 2011, Belly has over 200,000 active users who have checked in over 800,000 times. Belly currently partners with 1,400 merchants and adds 100+ new businesses each week. Starting today, Belly is available in New York and Boston, in addition to its existing roster of businesses in Chicago, Austin, Milwaukee, Madison, Washington D.C. and Phoenix.

About Belly

Belly is a universal loyalty program that offers unique and exceptional rewards to local businesses through a single customer loyalty card. Belly replaces traditional 'Buy 10, Get 1 Free' punch cards with a rewards platform that is tailored to each business’ personality, connecting customers on a much more personalized level to the places they already love. Customers can use a physical card, iPhone App or Android App to scan in on the provided in-store iPad to earn points at every store where Belly is accepted. These points can then be redeemed for creative and customized rewards at each individual location. Belly works with each business to design rewards that are one-of-a-kind and representative of that store’s distinct personality, creating a more engaged user base and ultimately improving customer retention. www.bellycard.com

About Andreessen Horowitz

Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm that provides seed, venture and growth stage funding to the best new technology companies. Founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz helps entrepreneurs become successful CEOs and build important and enduring companies. Its general partners are Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, John O’Farrell, Scott Weiss, Jeff Jordan and Peter Levine, all widely recognized experts in the creation, scaling and operation of high growth technology companies. The firm has $2.7 billion under management across three funds. Among its 90 investments are Airbnb, Apptio, Box, Fab, Facebook, Foursquare, Groupon, Jawbone, Lytro, Pinterest, Silver Tail Systems, Twitter and Zynga. The firm was established in June 2009 and is located in Menlo Park, California. www.a16z.com