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Dosh: A lot of cash, a lot of promise.

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By: Mike Giambattista, CLMP |

Posted on April 27, 2018

With $44 million in the bank, card-linked cashback startup, Dosh, now has enough money to play big league ball.

By Mike Giambattista

PayPal has invested in synergistically-related startups before so the fact that they are part of the pool that recently funded a $44 million dollar round for Dosh may not be that surprising – especially considering the high hopes for the Austin-based company.

Ryan Wuerch, founder and CEO of Dosh, talked about the thinking behind the app – which, he claims, had over 6 million downloads as of February of this year, and became the number one shopping app in Apple and number four in Google.  Not so bad for an app that was only launched the public in May of last year.

Here’s what differentiates Dosh from other cash-back mechanisms in the marketplace and what is ostensibly behind their meteoric growth. The Dosh technology finds coupons and deals from the brand or merchant and automatically applies them to the consumer’s purchase. And because Dosh is tied to the same credit card that a consumer already uses they still get their loyalty rewards from the credit card issuer. What Dosh is giving back is from the brand or merchant.

“Dosh finds coupons and deals from the brand or merchant and automatically applies them to the consumer’s purchase.”

For example: “Wuerch spent a night at Le Meridien in San Francisco. The best price on online sites was $199 for the night. In the Dosh app, it was $199, but when he checked out the app put $67.03 in cash back into his Dosh wallet in his app where he could immediately move it to his bank account or transfer it to a charity.”

Wuerch tells VentureBeat, “When you get a discount, you don’t typically give it much thought,” he told VentureBeat. “Research shows that when consumers pay for something and then automatically receive cash when they weren’t expecting it, a positive stimulus gets triggered neurologically. That stimulus creates a behavioral connection to the merchant that gets them the positive stimulus.”

"Dosh subscribers become sustained, repeat customers faster," said James Lerner, Senior Product Marketing Director, Walmart Global eCommerce/Samsclub.com. "Those customers are visiting 29% more often and spending 60% more per visit after 60 days when compared to non-Dosh subscribers."

"Dosh subscribers become sustained, repeat customers faster."

So what does Dosh plan to do with its new-found funding?  Primarily, it plans to expedite product development and boost its technical capabilities.  That focus on technology has paid healthy dividends thus far.  According to Wuerch, “There are lots of free cash back apps and websites but many often require consumers to mail in receipts or take additional steps. Dosh works seamlessly behind the scenes.”

At The Wise Marketer we make a big deal out of ideas such as seamlessness and frictionless transactions – ideas that make life easier & better for the customer and which create a stronger bond between them, the merchant and the brand.  Dosh appears to have a strong game on all those important fronts.  And both consumers and investors alike see the promise.

Mike Giambattista is Editor in Chief at The Wise Marketer and is a Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional (CLMP).