Brand Advocacy platform, Duel, raises $16M in Series A

Paul Archer, CEO and co-founder of Duel, explains: “In today’s hyper connected world in which social media is now twice the size of all other media channels combined and entirely user-generated, the most successful brands are the ones investing in people and in community, not in ads.
Because the truth is, a brand’s best marketers aren’t on their payroll – they’re the customers already out there sharing and recommending the products they love.
We know from our own data that between a fifth and a third of a brand’s customers are already active creators, so at Duel, we help brands recruit, activate, and scale these authentic voices, turning everyday customers into powerful advocates who fuel measurable growth.”

Miguel Bagulho, Investment Director at Bright Pixel Capital, the tech investment arm of Sonae Group, adds: “What we see within our retailers and brand partners today is clear: the old model of short-term, transactional campaigns is losing effectiveness. The brands driving the strongest growth are those building durable communities and creating long-term value through their customers. Duel is championing this shift, turning advocacy into a systematic, scalable strategy. We believe Brand Advocacy will become one of the defining growth drivers of the next decade, not just in retail but across every sector and Bright Pixel is proud to back Paul and the Duel team as they lead this transformation.”

Nicola McClafferty, Partner at Molten Ventures, says: “Duel is rewriting the playbook for how brands grow in the modern world. Performance marketing has become expensive, impersonal, and often ineffective. Duel provides an alternative that is better aligned to how consumers discover and engage with brands, and can transform the way that brands are built and marketed. We’re thrilled to support Duel as they build a new category and reshape how modern brands grow.”

Archer concludes: “Many companies still think they control their brand, when in reality it lives in the conversations happening every day among millions of customers on social media. The brands winning today are the ones that earn it – they loosen their grip, humanise themselves, and empower fans to carry the brand forward. Those that don’t do this won’t survive the decade.
We give ambitious brands the system and expertise to turn that everyday advocacy into their most powerful growth channel – and with this investment, we’re only just getting started.”