Last year, Larky was a small start-up with a team of three people made up of its co-founders and an entrepreneurship fellow. A little more than one year into its existence, Larky has five employees, three independent contractors, and is looking to make another three hires.
Product adoption is driving this growth. Larky is developing a software platform that helps its user maximize the discounts and savings available to them through the organizations they are members of, such as alumni associations. The 1-year-old start-up now has 2,000 partner organizations and tens of thousands of users.
"We got thousands of people using it right away," says Gregg Hammerman, co-founder of
Larky. "It was more than we expected."
Larky's software is available through both a mobile app and a Web platform. "We found that a third of the people who use Larky use the website," Hammerman says. He adds that the mobile app, which is free, also has location awareness so it can alert users when they are near their discounts.
Larky is currently looking to raise a $1.5 million Series A round of venture capital by early fall. It raised a $650,000 seed round last year. The start-up plans to use its newly raised capital to continue to expand staff so it can lock down more partnerships, such as with big organizations like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
"We want to be working with more than 100 organizations like that," Hammerman says. He adds that sort of outreach across the country will allow Larky to "consistently surprise and delight our users."
Source: Gregg Hammerman, co-founder of Larky
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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