What Spaycial does

Spaycial (legally Transaction Connect, headquartered in Paris) is a European fintech and retail data platform founded in 2016. The company operates as an ACPR-Banque de France-approved payment institution (CIB 17038) and PSD2-registered Account Information Service Provider (REGAFI 76254), giving it licensed access to first-party payment card transaction data across Europe. Its core product transforms payment-card payments into automatic shopper identification — no QR codes or loyalty cards required — and converts raw transaction flows into enriched marketing intelligence including omnichannel behavior, competitive benchmarking, catchment area analysis, and Halo Effect measurement. The platform is delivered through a tiered SaaS offering (REWARD at €30/store/month, INSIGHTS at €45/store/month, and a custom-priced INSIGHTS+ tier) with API integrations managed by Spaycial or by client teams, and is supported by a JavaScript SDK and developer portal.

Spaycial sells primarily to enterprise customers in retail real estate (shopping malls and shopping centers such as Westfield London, Westfield Stratford City, Eurocommercial Properties, and Nepi Rockcastle), individual retailers (with Mango and Maisons du Monde cited as halo-effect references), and adjacent verticals including city centers, transport hubs, and football clubs. Distribution is a mix of direct enterprise field sales and channel partnerships with major shopping-center operators that enable portfolio-wide deployments. The company is present in 10 European countries (France, Spain, Poland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic, UK, Germany, and the Netherlands) with claimed reach across 120,000 stores and 250 million shoppers. Monetization combines recurring subscription fees, loyalty/rewards processing, and advanced analytics, with pricing transparently disclosed per store per month.

A 2021 majority investment by Enigmatic Smile reshaped Spaycial's ownership structure while founders Didier Gasté (CEO) and Maxime Dellerie (CTO) retained leadership. The company rebranded from Transaction Connect to Spaycial in September 2021 alongside its fifth anniversary and transitioned to a remote-first operating model. To date, Spaycial has raised a €1.5M seed round from Elaia Partners in 2016 with a reported follow-on, is rated in the Top 16% by Early Metrics (78/100), and has been recognized at NRF Retail's Big Show 2022, Challenges "100 start-ups où investir," and the Les Echos Prix David avec Goliath.

Name

Spaycial

Legal name

Transaction Connect

Website

https://spaycial.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Spaycial is a Paris-based, ACPR-approved payment institution that converts PSD2 payment card data into omnichannel shopper insights, loyalty, and marketing analytics for shopping centers, retailers, and adjacent verticals across 10 European countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Retail Analytics Software

akta.pro primary industry

Price Comparison, Deals, Cashback & Loyalty Shopping Platforms (BPAMAGAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

POS, SoftPOS & In-Person Acceptance Infrastructure (FSAGABAO)

Keywords

• Payment data analytics
• Retail loyalty platform
• Omnichannel shopper insights
• PSD2 payment institution
• AI customer segmentation

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel

Revenue model

1. Subscription - Per Store Licensing: Monthly subscription model based on number of shops and members in loyalty program. Three tiers available: REWARD (€30/store/month), INSIGHTS (€45/store/month), and INSIGHTS+ (custom pricing).
2. Loyalty & Rewards Processing: Revenue generated from processing loyalty rewards including cashback, dotations, and services for shoppers using linked payment cards.
3. Market Intelligence & Analytics: Additional revenue stream from advanced analytics including catchment area analysis, competitive benchmarking, and halo effect measurement.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Spaycial operates a PSD2-licensed payment data analytics platform that turns payment card transactions into first-party behavioral data and marketing intelligence for retailers and shopping centers. Shoppers link their payment card once via bank-grade app-to-app authentication, then are automatically identified when paying in-store or online, enabling cashback, loyalty rewards, e-receipts, and personalized offers without QR codes or loyalty cards. The platform also provides AI-powered segmentation, omnichannel market intelligence dashboards, catchment area analysis, and halo effect measurement for merchants.

Product overview

Spaycial is a unified payment data analytics and marketing automation platform that transforms payment card transactions into granular first-party behavioral data. The platform consists of three integrated solutions: REWARD (loyalty and transaction tracking), INSIGHTS (market intelligence and AI-powered segmentation), and INSIGHTS+ (catchment area analysis and asset management). All tiers share a common data infrastructure enabling omnichannel shopper identification, automated rewards, and personalized marketing activation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Spaycial Platform (Authentication & Transactions) Core SaaS platform that authenticates shoppers via their linked payment card (app-to-app under PSD2), automatically identifies them when they pay in-store or online without QR codes or loyalty cards, and turns first-party payment transactions into enriched marketing intelligence and customer knowledge. Sold to enterprise retailers, shopping centers, city centers, transport hubs, and football clubs via direct sales and API integration.
• Spaycial E-Receipt (Digital Ticket) Digital receipt solution that replaces paper till receipts with electronic equivalents, maintaining purchase information for shoppers and supporting environmental sustainability goals aligned with French anti-waste legislation. Activated through the Spaycial platform following payment authentication.

Quantifiable outcome

• 33% increase in conversion rate compared to web scraping authentication
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Westfield (Unibail-Rodamco)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2021Deployment of Spaycial loyalty technology in Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City shopping centers. This represents a flagship partnership with one of Europe's largest shopping center operators, enabling seamless loyalty rewards for shoppers at these iconic UK locations.
• Nepi RockcastlecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Polish shopping center operator partnership for payment data loyalty programs, strengthening Spaycial's position in Central and Eastern Europe.
• Eurocommercial PropertiescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEuropean shopping center operator, managing properties including Passage du Havre in Paris. Spaycial works with Eurocommercial on loyalty programs and shopper insights, with Director Thomas Phemius publicly endorsing the partnership.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Cardlytics: Cardlytics runs a card-linked marketing intelligence platform that aggregates anonymized purchase data from banks and serves merchants with attribution, offers, and analytics. It is the closest direct peer to Spaycial's payment-data-powered loyalty and analytics model, targeting banks/issuers and retailers much like Spaycial targets shopping centers.
• Thanx: Thanx is a payment-linked loyalty and customer data platform that uses card-linked opt-in to identify customers, run targeted offers, and deliver behavioral analytics to merchants. It directly mirrors Spaycial's automatic shopper recognition plus loyalty/marketing activation stack.
• Bridg: Bridg is a customer data platform built on anonymized transaction data that links POS and card-on-file purchases to anonymous customer profiles for marketing activation. Its payment-data CDP approach closely parallels Spaycial's INSIGHTS+ positioning for retailers and shopping locations.

Broad incumbents

• Plaid: Plaid is the leading open-banking data connectivity layer connecting bank accounts to thousands of fintech apps. As a foundational AISP-style infrastructure provider, it sits upstream of Spaycial and competes indirectly for merchants looking to build first-party data programs on top of open-banking APIs.
• Tink (Visa): Tink, owned by Visa, is a Europe-based open-banking platform providing PSD2 AISP and PIS services across 20+ markets. Visa's ownership and pan-European PSD2 footprint make it a broad incumbent that could either partner with or compete against Spaycial for enterprise retail data programs.
• TrueLayer: TrueLayer is a UK-headquartered open-banking API platform offering account information, payment initiation, and identity services. It is a relevant comparative incumbent for PSD2-based data collection similar to Spaycial's AISP license, though its customer base is broader financial-services rather than retail-focused.
• Yotpo: Yotpo is a broader e-commerce marketing platform providing reviews, SMS marketing, subscriptions, and loyalty to DTC and retail merchants. Its loyalty suite overlaps with Spaycial's REWARD/INSIGHTS modules as a broader incumbent in the loyalty/marketing technology stack.
• SessionM (Marigold Engage): SessionM, now part of Marigold Engage, is an omnichannel customer loyalty and engagement platform serving global brands in retail, travel, and financial services. It is a broad incumbent overlap with Spaycial's loyalty + segmentation offering for enterprise retailers.

Emerging players

• Punchh: Punchh is a digital loyalty and customer engagement platform purpose-built for restaurants and brick-and-mortar retail chains. It operates in the same card- and transaction-linked loyalty segment as Spaycial but focuses on QSR rather than shopping centers, making it an adjacent emerging player.
• Antavo: Antavo is a SaaS loyalty cloud platform for retail and fashion brands, providing campaign management, segmentation, and member engagement. While it does not rely on payment data, it competes for the same loyalty platform budget allocated by Spaycial's retail customers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/spaycial_com
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/spaycial

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Spaycial