South Korea mobile loyalty platform raises $3.9m

Launched in 2012, Dodo is an app-based customer loyalty platform that allows customer to collect and redeem loyalty points when shopping by entering their phone number into the merchant's tablet when they check-out.

Dodo differentiates itself from other loyalty programs in that customers do not need to sign up or download a new app on their own device. It also offers a targeted SMS text coupon service for merchants. The business generates revenue by charging merchants monthly license fees to use the platform.

Spoqa previously raised two undisclosed rounds from Korean investors GS Home Shopping and POSCO Venture Partners in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The business, which claims to already have 1,500 merchants on its platform, plans to use this latest round of funding for both further expansion into Korea and to officially launch its product in neighbouring Japan.

Unlike some other, larger Asian markets, Japan is a particularly attractive as the country has a higher proporation of independent traders - the target market - versus franchise stores. 

"While other markets might be larger than Japan, we have internal metrics screaming great opportunities in Japan," Richard Choi, founder of Spoqa, told Techcrunch. "We have partner merchants in Japan who are already paying us for our services even before we had a properly translated version of our services."

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