Founded in November 2011 Itembase focused its first year on developing our core data normalization technology. We launched our first consumer and merchant Applications in 2012. This was built on the same Itembase API Technology we still use today. 

In order to enter the market we needed significant Merchants participation and to get that started we had to convince them one by one. Our 2013 approach was to hire unlikely but enthusiastic candidates from Berlin’s cultural melting-pot. DJs, University Graduates, Cooks, professional Sing-a-Song Singers were all motivated to learn how eCommerce worked and to make money. Many of them learned how to convince Merchants one-by-one to and by the end of 2013 we had our first 15,000 Merchants. By the end of 2014 that number had grown to over 100,000 participating Merchants.

In 2015 we realized that our Industry Contribution was our API Technology and by the end of 2015 over 2,000 merchants were connected to Customers using our API Technology. By 2016 we had gotten deep insights into the Merchant business and had in the process established a library of relevant merchant actions. We had also established a directory of Solutions that could help Merchants. Our Advisor Application combines both to help Merchants improve their business.

The initial Action Library combined with the Solution Directory was fairly primitive. By 2017 we had increased the Solution Directory to contain over 26,000 different Solutions and we had gained a lot of insights into what actions was the most effective with what Type of Merchants and in combination with what Solutions. Based on our growing Dataset we were able to increase the sophistication of our Action Library which allowed us to take Merchants through a growth journey based on the Merchants sophistication and growth trajectory.

After having partnered with Mastercard in 2016 and working on enabling Merchants with our Advisor Technology we are launching a new kind Application targeted directly at the Financial Service Industry with Mastercard. The Data Management Application will help Financial Institutions leverage item-level purchase data to engage Consumers directly in the Bank Statement, Credit Card Statement or Mobile Banking Application. This adds the next level of Merchant Connectivity to the Itembase Platform, as it enables Merchants to connect to their consumers through the Bank Statement and thereby never loose connection to the individual consumer.