Checkmate unveils AI marketing platform mate used by 700+ brands

Checkmate said its new AI marketing platform, mate, is already used by more than 700 brands and is profitable with roughly a $15 million annual run rate. The launch shows how the shopping app turned years of first-party shopper data into a B2B growth engine as ad tracking faded across the web and mobile.

Why it matters: - Checkmate’s launch shows how consumer apps can turn first-party shopper data into a B2B marketing business as third-party tracking weakens. - The move matters for brands that have lost signal from Apple’s tracking changes, cookie blocking and higher media costs. - Checkmate said mate is already profitable, which is unusual for a new AI marketing platform.

What happened: - Checkmate revealed mate, an AI marketing platform now used by more than 700 brands, including Everlane, Billabong, Brooklinen, Malbon and JD Sports. - The company said mate is on track to exit 2026 at roughly a $15 million run rate. - Checkmate said the business was built with zero marketing spend. - The platform launch follows Checkmate’s 2023 funding round, when the company was publicly seen mainly as a consumer shopping app.

The details: - Checkmate said the consumer app collected data from redeemed offers, tracked prices and purchases across app, email, SMS and desktop. - The company said that behavior created more than 12 billion live intent signals across 100 million-plus shoppers. - mate’s agents use that shopper network to run campaigns. - Everlane attributed $480,000 to mate in under 30 days across 2,450 orders and reported a 30% lift in conversion. - PSA Skincare said it saw a 150% lift in return on ad spend on the platform and had considered turning off Meta ads altogether before using mate. - The roster added Quiksilver, Dickies and Eddie Bauer this month. - mate has also started expanding beyond ecommerce into travel through RVshare and into financial products. - The team behind Checkmate remains lean, led by co-founder and CEO Harry Dixon and co-founder Rory Garton-Smith. - Dixon previously worked with architect Frank Gehry. - Garton-Smith previously served as an iPhone engineering program manager at Apple. - Checkmate has raised $20 million to date from Google Ventures, Mantis, Wischoff Ventures and angels including Paris Hilton and operators from Pinterest, Rakuten and Amazon.

Between the lines: - The launch reframes Checkmate as more than a shopping app, with the consumer side functioning as the data and distribution engine for the brand business. - The timing lines up with a broader shift in adtech, where AI makes campaign creation easier but access to shopper data harder to replace. - The company is positioning shopper consent and network scale as the real moat, not the software layer itself.

What's next: - Checkmate said it is applying the same technology to the shopper side of the network. - mate will likely keep expanding into more categories if current brand adoption and revenue trends hold. - The company’s public focus now shifts from app growth to monetizing the audience it already built. - More information is available in mate’s announcement. - Checkmate’s social channels include LinkedIn and X.