Bristol-based advocacy platform Duel receives $3.6m investment

Duel, a Bristol-based brand advocacy platform, has completed a $3.6 million investment round led by early-stage venture capital firm SuperSeed Capital Ltd.

A brand advocacy software-as-a-service platform, Duel enables brands to coordinate, track and measure their advocates at scale across multiple communities including customer ambassadors, creators, influencers, athletes, and store employees.

This, in turn, helps them acquire more customers through social commerce; build trust through social proof such as reviews and content; and drive engagement, thereby creating more revenue.

Paul Archer, co-founder and CEO of Duel, said: “We’re in the depths of a people-powered revolution when it comes to growing consumer brands, as now content created by real people influences so many of our purchase decisions, not ads generated by businesses.

“If brands want to capitalise on the fact that commerce is rapidly moving to social, they need to tap into their own communities of people, identifying their most social, influential, and highly passionate brand fans, and then grow through them.”

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The platform is used by brands such as ASOS, Unilever, Charlotte Tilbury, Rab, Monica Vinader, Mint Velvet, Beauty Pie, NEOM, Bleach London and Elemis. Duel was also featured in Gartner’s ‘Cool Vendor’ Retail Marketing category and is B Corp pending.

Duel will use the investment to continue its expansion and better serve its global client base. It will also further the business’ recruitment and training goals.

Mads Jensen, Managing Partner at SuperSeed, said: “We are delighted to have led the investment round in Duel. For too long, consumer brands have been forced to rely on expensive ads to drive revenue.

“Duel’s technology is a game changer, as it helps brands reduce their reliance on ineffective advertising strategies and instead use their own communities to grow. We believe this company has the potential to become one of the most important SaaS companies to emerge from the UK in years.”