Bunchball
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, Gamification |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | Rajat Paharia |
| Fate | Acquired by BI Worldwide in 2018 |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Products | Bunchball Nitro (gamification platform) |
Number of employees | 60 (2010) |
| Website | www |
Bunchball provides a cloud-hosted software-as-a-service platform focused on gamification, aimed at improving customer loyalty and increasing online interaction through the application of game design principles. Established in 2005 by Rajat Paharia, the company secured $17.5 million in investment capital. In 2018, BI Worldwide acquired Bunchball for an undisclosed amount.
History
Bunchball was launched by Rajat Paharia in 2005 with an initial emphasis on integrating social games into platforms such as Facebook, Myspace, and dating websites. Early-stage funding was provided by Sunil Singh, CEO of Informance International, along with angel investor Payman Pouladdej.
In October 2006, the company raised $2 million in a Series A round from Granite Ventures and Adobe Ventures. By 2007, NBC contracted Bunchball to create the community website Dunder Mifflin Infinity for the TV series The Office. That same year, Bunchball redirected its efforts from social gaming to launching Nitro, a platform that allows organizations to implement game mechanics across social networks, mobile applications, and websites.
In January 2008, Bunchball secured $4 million in Series B financing from returning investors Granite Ventures and Adobe Ventures, expanding its workforce to 28 employees. By June 2010, a $6.5 million Series C funding round led by Triangle Peak Partners and others increased the staff to 60 employees, bringing total funding to $21 million.
Software
Bunchball Nitro serves as a gamification platform engineered to enhance user engagement online. It incorporates game elements such as badges, team points, and leaderboards for use on websites, social communities, mobile apps, and enterprise systems. The platform supports 70 million unique users and processes 2.3 billion actions monthly. An updated version of Nitro, known internally as Flamethrower, was launched in March 2012.
The Nitro platform integrates with Salesforce to incentivize sales teams through gamification. Additionally, the Jive Gamification Module—an extension for the Jive social business platform—is powered by Bunchball Nitro and offers users missions designed to emphasize key features of the platform. Nitro for IBM Connections assists companies in training and engaging users within the IBM Connections environment by employing gamification strategies such as missions and rewards.
Major projects
In 2007, Bunchball developed Dunder Mifflin Infinity for NBC Universal, a website where 40,000 participants generated over one million page views while role-playing as employees of the fictional company featured in the TV show.
In 2009, Bunchball collaborated with the USA Network to gamify the Psych website, resulting in an increase in page views from 9 million to 16 million during a single season. The frequency of visitor returns grew from twice monthly to four or five times per month, while average session duration rose from 14 to 22 minutes.
In December 2010, Playboy’s Facebook application Miss Social was powered by Bunchball Nitro; this month-long contest achieved an 85% re-engagement rate and boosted revenue by 60% month-over-month. Since its launch, Playboy’s active user community expanded to 80,000 members.
In 2011, Bunchball teamed up with the Los Angeles Kings to apply gamification techniques to their fan website, making them one of the earliest professional sports teams to adopt such strategies.