Wildfire Systems burns bright

FINTECH: 2-Year Revenue Growth Lands Co. on Regional Inc. Mag List

For the last two years, Wildfire Systems, Inc. has been ablaze with growth.

In late February, the San Diego-based enterprise platform fintech was ranked No. 7 on the Inc. 5000 Regionals 2023: Pacific list, which ranks the fastest-growing Pacific region private companies based in Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon and Washington. Wildfire made it into Inc.’s ranking for its red-hot two-year revenue growth of 2,763%.

“Wildfire is honored to be recognized by Inc. as one of America’s fastest-growing companies,” said Jordan Glazier, founder and CEO, Wildfire Systems. “The past two years have been transformational for Wildfire and making it into the top 10 of the Inc. 5000 Pacific Regionals is a testament to the hard work of our team and the spirit of partnership we enjoy with our clients’ and investors. We look forward to continuing our momentum as we build a great business.”

Rewards Program Platform

Glazier said he founded Wildfire in 2017 with a vision of rewarding and monetizing consumer peer-to-peer recommendations. The platform does this by powering the rewards and loyalty programs of large financial institutions and technology companies.

“Over the past five years, we’ve evolved our product and strategy to meet the needs of our partners and end users with a focus primarily on shopping rewards,” he said. “It just so happens that the ecommerce engine and tech stack we built along the way, along with our massive merchant network, was perfectly suited to be the backbone of our core product offering – our white-label cashback rewards platform built for enterprises.”

Wildfire builds “turnkey shopping rewards programs,” Glazier said, that allow its partners to award their customers when they shop online with benefits such as earning cashback rewards and automatically applying the best coupon as the customer checks out.

“We help consumers save money and earn money when they shop, which, in turn, helps our partners drive customer loyalty and new revenue streams,” he added.

Scorching 2022

Last year, Wildfire more than doubled its year-over-year revenue, which the company attributes partially to consumers seeking relief from high inflation by purchasing products and services from brands offering cashback rewards.

The company reported in January that its platform was responsible for driving more than $260 million in online purchases at participating brands and that initiated more than 32 million online shopping journeys through Wildfire in 2022.

“Last year was another transformative year for Wildfire. In the midst of a turbulent economy, we embraced a growth mindset and exceeded expectations on every front,” Glazier said.

Wildfire’s transformative year also included landing a key partnership with Visa to power its new

Visa Affiliate Marketing Solutions (VAMS) program. VAMS enables issuers to provide cashback rewards, coupons, and other benefits to cardholders when they shop at thousands of online retailers. The program is available to Visa’s issuer clients throughout the globe, supported by Wildfire’s extensive coverage of over 50,000 merchant programs in 55 countries. In addition to driving customer loyalty and retention, issuers of both credit and debit cards will benefit from new revenue sources driven by merchant-funded rewards.

“It has always been a priority for us to provide our issuer partners with the tools they need to be successful,” said Tad Tilahun, head of payment platforms at Visa. “This collaboration with Wildfire will give our partners a simple and robust reward solution that seamlessly expands their consumer engagement opportunities.”

Capitalized for Future Growth

In addition to attracting partners like Visa, Wildfire also attracted capital last year with an investment from Citi Ventures in October.

“Wildfire is a leading player at the intersection of embedded finance, e-commerce, rewards, and loyalty.” said Luis Valdich, managing director and head of fintech investing at Citi Ventures. “We are excited to invest in Wildfire given its strong market traction and vast potential to help financial services firms drive revenue, engagement, and customer acquisition and retention.”

The undisclosed investment by Citi brough Wildfire’s total venture backing to $24.5 million. In 2021, the company secured a $15 million Series A round, co-led by TTV Capital and QED Investors. Other investors included Mucker Capital, Bonfire Ventures, Moonshots Capital, B Capital, and BAM Ventures.

“I’m grateful to our team for their creativity and passion, our clients for their trust, and our investors for their support,” Glazier said. “Wildfire is heading into 2023 with exciting momentum.”