Congratulations to KeepLocal GmbH for being the global winners of the GRECA Year-End 2021 Start-up Challenge! They have won free services matching investors with entrepreneurs like themselves. A little story to celebrate their win:
It was a little over 3 years ago today, right before Christmas, when Heidi Houy stood in line at a popular chain pharmacy in Germany, dm-drogerie markt Deutschland, and observed the 10 people in line in front of her at the cash register swooping up one last gift – a voucher for Amazon, Apple, and co. She asked herself why the only gift cards available were from U.S. giants and none from local businesses…and so the idea of KeepLocal GmbH was born!
Binding together their experience in #entrepreneurship, retail, and software, Heidi and Andreas Maurer founded the company last year. The idea was very simple: where previously only #vouchers from large retailers and corporations were to be bought, vouchers of local dealers should also be available. In this way, the #local #businesses would be supported.
Together they worked on this easy-to-use voucher system. Cities, #retailers, #freelancers and #companies can register, participate in the system, and benefit from it. Customers have access to many different services close to their #home with a simple click online.
Despite the challenges faced during #Covid, the KeepLocal team has continued to grow and together they have already conquered 59 cities and municipalities and convinced numerous retailers and entrepreneurs of their voucher system. This commitment was honored by Marketing Club Saar (picture in previous post) this past year. In an interview, the CEO told us that they have already sold gift cards worth over 1 million Euro and are growing very fast.
KeepLocal participated in the GRECA Global Start-up Challenge at the beginning of this month and won in first place 🏆
The CEOs want to continue growing throughout #Germany and eventually expand throughout #Europe. With the help of access to private funding through GRECA Finance GmbH, their goal is to “build a team of specialists to scale up and integrate KeepLocal to the top POS Software of all sectors”.
Congratulations again and we look forward to hearing how the story continues! ✨
