Spend five minutes on almost any major retail, travel or financial services website in 2026 and you’ll increasingly notice something.
The points tracker in the corner; the “unlock your reward” banner mid-scroll; the personalised offer that appears – with slightly unnerving precision – just as you’re about to move on.
Customer loyalty technology has moved from the back office to the front page, and the infrastructure powering it has become one of the most competitive spaces in enterprise software.
The numbers bear it out. According to Statista, the global loyalty tech market is projected to surpass $41bn by 2032. McKinsey research finds that 78% of consumers are more likely to make a repeat purchase when offered a personalised experience.
And the sector is consolidating fast – the recent eight-figure acquisition of UK loyalty startup Lux Rewards by global rewards company Enigmatic Smile is the latest signal that this sub-sector of the martech mix is beginning to attract some serious money.
Somewhere near the centre of that expanding universe, quietly operating out of Circle Square on Oxford Road in the heart of Manchester, is Propello Cloud. Founded by a former agency man who re-mortgaged his house to follow his conviction, it is now an enterprise loyalty expert trusted by leading global brands looking for speed and scale.
With 30 loyalty and tech experts on staff, the business has scaled to serve over 60 clients across eight geographic markets. Its platform currently supports 15 million users, a figure that is doubling year-on-year.
It is, by almost any measure, a business whose moment has arrived.
Moving off the ‘hamster wheel’
Propello Cloud did not begin as a tech company. Its origins lie firmly in the agency world – specifically, in the 15 years that CEO and founder Mark Camp spent at Workhouse, the Preston-based integrated agency. It’s a background that, he says, shaped everything about how Propello Cloud was built and what problem it was designed to solve.
“I loved the creativity, but I hated the commercial model,” Camp says. “You’re always on a hamster wheel. You win a project, you deliver it, and then you’re back to zero. I wanted to build something that created ongoing value and, frankly, recurring revenue.”
The catalyst came through a wholesaler client called Stax Trade Centres, whose legacy loyalty programme was, by Camp’s own description, unengaging and largely unachievable for most customers.
The opportunity presented itself to build something that would deliver value for the masses, with automation at its core – and so Propello was born in 2020, with a mission to provide a complete reward technology solution.
“I re-mortgaged my house to fund the initial spin-out because we believed in the product that much,” Camp adds.
The loyalty boom
The timing of Propello Cloud’s growth trajectory is no accident. Loyalty technology, long dismissed as a sector of plastic punch-cards and birthday discount emails, is undergoing a fundamental transformation – and the commercial logic driving that transformation has rarely been stronger.
“It’s a perfect storm,” says Camp. “Customer Acquisition Cost has gone through the roof – some reports say it’s up 500% in five years. You can’t just ‘buy’ customers on Facebook anymore. Brands have realised that the most profitable customer is the one they already have.”
What has changed, Camp argues, is not loyalty itself but the expectation around what it should feel like. “People don’t want a plastic card and a 10% discount on their birthday,” he says. “They want value-add. They want to feel like the brand actually knows them.”
That’s where Propello Cloud’s technology comes in. The platform’s capabilities allow brands to move beyond generic perks and into personalised engagement – what Camp calls the “phygital” bridge between the digital and physical world.
He offers an example: “Our tech allows a brand to say, ‘Hey, we see you just finished a workout at JD Gyms – here’s a voucher for a high-protein shake at the shop next door.’ That’s the data doing the work.”
Gamification, too, is reshaping what loyalty programmes look like from the inside. COO George Charlesworth points to the platform’s in-built gamification – including prize draws, spin-to-win and challenges – as essential for driving long-term user engagement and programme longevity.
“We’ve seen engagement rates spike by 350% when a brand adds a simple spin element to their weekly comms,” he says. “Behind the scenes, we’re managing the prize pool – it could be a free coffee from a partner, or points a customer can spend in-store. It’s about instant gratification that also builds habit.”
The technology underpinning all of this is Propello’s proprietary CMS and API-based rewards engine, Reactor. It allows clients to configure campaigns, personalise incentives and monitor results in real-time with no developer resource required. This is supported by a pre-enabled reward catalogue featuring over 2,000 brands globally, and a dedicated partnerships team that can source bespoke rewards at scale..
The modular technology can take a brand from zero to live in six to eight weeks, Charlesworth says. “If a brand tried to do this themselves – hiring developers, negotiating reward contracts with a thousand different brands – it would take 18 months and cost hundreds of thousands,” he says.
Driving growth through loyalty
Propello Cloud’s impact is best demonstrated through its work with clients.
JD Gyms used Propello to drive conversions for its premium “Plus+” membership. By launching a fitness-centric rewards programme that added tangible value to the upgrade,
Propello helped JD Gyms achieve a massive boost in membership upsell, resulting in seven-figure revenues and more than 20x ROI.
“When a global retailer like JD trusts your tech to power their loyalty, it tells the rest of the market that you are ready for the enterprise level,” Camp says.
When Lyca Mobile approached Propello looking to launch a full loyalty programme across four international markets, the turnaround was swift: from standing start to live in 16 weeks. Within six months, loyalty programme users were generating a 20% increase in app usage and a 9% uplift in transaction volumes.
For HelloFresh, meanwhile, Propello modernised its rewards strategy by deploying a digital platform focused on referrals and partner revenue. The programme achieved a 500% uplift in brand reach and generated over £1m in referred new customers. Additionally, a 220% growth in partner content led to a five-fold increase in partnership revenue.
The agency opportunity
The scale-up’s platform is designed, in no small part, with the agency model in mind – and not just because of its founder’s background.
“We are your secret weapon,” Camp says. “Most agencies have clients asking about loyalty or value-add rewards. Instead of saying ‘we don’t do that,’ or trying to build a shaky custom version, they can white-label Propello.”
Charlesworth adds: “We handle the tech, the security and the 1,000-plus reward partnerships. The agency handles the strategy, the creative and the client relationship. It turns a one-off project into a long-term, high-margin revenue stream.”
Propello’s model enables something closer to a managed service: a retained, ongoing commercial relationship with a client that generates predictable revenue and deepens strategic involvement. Camp calls it “the difference between a project and a partnership”.
Propello Cloud is also investing in AI-led capabilities across its product roadmap, with a focus on enhanced personalisation, offer relevance optimisation and programme governance.
The ambition, Camp says, is straightforward: grow the business, land the right partners, and ultimately reach a sale.
Like the best loyalty programmes, the company’s logic is simple: deliver consistent value, build trust over time, and the reward will follow.
