Experify, the first platform to enable a truly authentic product review experience by connecting prospective buyers with purchasers, closed a $4M seed round led by Vertex Ventures US, with the participation of Sonae Investment Management and the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund.

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In recent years, the rise of disingenuous influencers, hidden advertisements, and unverified purchasers have greatly undermined the credibility of online reviews. The $152B industry of fake reviews has caused people to need at least 10 reviews on average before they trust them, and for 68% of people to regularly question the authenticity of reviews. As a result, brands struggle to build trust with new and prospective customers, damaging their customer experience and ultimately leading to a loss of sales.

Experify solves this problem by entirely reinventing the buying experience with a platform that connects prospective buyers to real purchasers in their community, enabling them to speak with a genuine owner or even test out the product in question in person. Buyers can feel confident making purchases after having first-hand experience or hearing an honest review from someone who knows the product best.

Authentic, high-quality review experiences have proven to be influential in purchasing decisions. Since Experify’s inception in 2020, the company has consistently shown significant increases in lead conversion rates for participating brands. Nearly any product or service can benefit from introducing Experify to their customer experience, but particularly companies that sell high-consideration or high-cost goods such as indoor/outdoor furnishings, HiFi audio equipment, electric vehicles, and more.

“Our vision for Experify is to completely change the way that consumers buy products and evaluate online businesses through an authentic, scalable word-of-mouth experience,” said René Pfitzner, CEO, and co-founder of Experify. “Over the last year, we’ve helped a variety of great companies activate their community of customers like never before.”

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“Experify is helping us scale the word-of-mouth recommendation experience for the digital age,” said Andi Solinski, Content Manager at RADON Bikes, one of Europe’s largest direct-to-consumer bicycle brands. “As an online-based retailer offering high-end bikes, it can be hard for prospective customers to know if our products are right for them. Experify connects real owners with prospective buyers so our satisfied customers and high-quality products can speak for themselves. Since embedding Experify into our customer experience, we’ve seen ROIs of 15x and more.”

Experify will use these new funds to scale and meet the growing customer demand by increasing headcount, specifically on the sales and product engineering teams. Following the recent addition of a Head of Sales, Experify’s senior leadership team will grow to include a Head of Engineering. Experify will focus on expanding its customer base and further developing the platform, aiming to expand its network of brands that use Experify.

“We chose to lead Experify’s seed round because we share the founders’ vision to create trusted communities of loyal consumers,” said In Sik Rhee, General Partner, of Vertex Ventures. “Experify is pioneering the natural evolution of consumer marketing beyond user-generated content, giving brands a valuable opportunity to engage with their current and future customers, creating an entirely new market. There’s currently no easy way for brands to connect genuinely with consumers so we believe the time is right and we’re thrilled at the opportunities ahead.”

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