Sotto

What Sotto does

Sotto is a phygital engagement platform that gives physical businesses an identity layer analogous to what digital channels have long provided. The company was founded in 2023 by Joshua Bowen (CEO), Paul Juckiewicz (CTO), and Lindsey Buxman (President) and is headquartered in New York. Its core product is the Phygital Cookie, a patent-pending NFC hardware device placed at physical locations and events; when a customer taps their phone on the device, an SMS draft opens automatically and, upon sending, the brand receives the customer's identity and can begin a one-to-one conversation — with no app download, QR code, or form required.

The platform layers four software components on top of the hardware: Conversational SMS/MMS for behavior-triggered one-to-one messaging, Active Listening (an NLP engine that extracts preference, intent, and context signals from natural SMS responses into structured zero-party data profiles), Phygital Strategist (an AI campaign agent that converts a plain-language goal into audience selection, message drafting, and send cadence), and the Sotto App for real-time multi-location monitoring and campaign approval. The company integrates with Shopify and Lightspeed POS to unify online and in-store customer profiles.

Sotto's go-to-market is a consultative enterprise and mid-market sale targeting retail, hospitality, live events and activations, media and publishing, and CPG brand activations. Revenue is generated through SaaS subscription, hardware sale or lease of the Phygital Cookie, and professional services for multi-location deployment, with quote-based pricing and no publicly disclosed tiers. The company is venture-backed by Superangel.Fund, Sunflower, Nordurver, BDMI, Hannah Grey, and 1745 Ventures, has a team of 1–10, and reports no public revenue.

Name

Sotto

Legal name

Sotto

Website

https://withsotto.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Sotto provides a phygital engagement platform combining NFC hardware with AI-powered SMS messaging and zero-party data capture, enabling retail, hospitality, live events, and CPG brands to identify in-person customers and build direct, personalized relationships through one-tap opt-in.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Customer Engagement Platform

NAICS

Advertising Agencies (541810), Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418)

SIC

Services-Advertising (7310), Telegraph & Other Message Communications (4822)

akta.pro primary industry

SMS/MMS & Messaging Marketing Services (Text, RCS, WhatsApp/OTT) (MPAAAIAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Social Customer Service & Conversational Sales Platforms (CRAFANAL)

Keywords

• Phygital engagement platform
• NFC customer identity
• Conversational SMS marketing
• Zero-party data platform
• Physical retail analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Platform Subscription: Sotto operates as a SaaS platform with subscription-based pricing. Businesses pay for access to the Phygital Cookie hardware device and the Sotto engagement platform, enabling identity capture, SMS conversations, Active Listening data collection, and AI-powered campaign automation. The model likely includes per-location or enterprise-level tiers.
2. Hardware (Phygital Cookie): The Phygital Cookie is a physical NFC hardware device that businesses place at their locations. Revenue is generated through the sale or lease of these hardware devices, which serve as the primary touchpoint for customer identity capture.
3. Professional Services: Implementation and consulting services for enterprise customers deploying the Phygital Cookie across multiple locations or events. Sotto provides support for integration with existing POS systems (Shopify, Lightspeed) and customized deployment strategies.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Sotto sells a phygital engagement platform built around the patent-pending Phygital Cookie NFC hardware device. When a customer taps their phone on the Cookie, the brand captures their phone number via SMS opt-in and gains a direct conversational channel for personalized 1:1 messaging. The platform combines AI-powered conversational SMS/MMS, a zero-party data engine (Active Listening), an autonomous AI campaign manager (Phygital Strategist), and a mobile management app for physical businesses across retail, hospitality, live events, and CPG brand activations.

Product overview

Sotto is a phygital engagement platform that provides physical businesses with the identity layer the internet has always had. The platform consists of the Phygital Cookie (core patent-pending NFC hardware device), which connects physical presence to digital identity via tap-to-connect SMS. This core product works in combination with Conversational SMS/MMS for 1:1 messaging, Active Listening for zero-party data capture, Phygital Strategist for AI-powered campaign automation, and the Sotto App for mobile management. The platform serves retail, hospitality, live events, and CPG brand activations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Phygital Cookie Patent-pending NFC hardware device placed at physical business locations and events. When a customer taps their phone on the device, an SMS draft opens automatically and the brand receives the customer's phone number plus opt-in consent, enabling instant 1:1 conversational engagement. Sold to retail, hospitality, live events, and CPG brand activation customers.
• Sotto Phygital Engagement Platform SaaS engagement platform that combines Conversational SMS/MMS, the Active Listening zero-party data engine, the Phygital Strategist AI campaign engine, and the Sotto App mobile dashboard. Delivered as a subscription to multi-location businesses in retail, hospitality, live events, CPG, and media and publishing, with integrations into Shopify and Lightspeed POS.

Quantifiable outcome

• 38% SMS campaign response rate (Nectar Hard Seltzer)
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability5 records

Feature5 records

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Yotpo: Ecommerce marketing platform combining reviews, SMS, loyalty, and zero-party data for retail brands. Directly overlaps with Sotto's SMS and zero-party data capture use cases, with broader feature breadth.
• Klaviyo: B2B SaaS platform combining email, SMS, and customer data for retail and ecommerce brands. Highly comparable on the AI-driven messaging automation and customer data foundation, though without the physical-world NFC capture layer.
• Thanx: Restaurant and retail customer engagement platform combining loyalty, ordering, and SMS outreach. Overlaps with Sotto's hospitality vertical and its focus on identifying and re-engaging in-person customers.
• Punchh: Restaurant and hospitality loyalty and CRM platform that turns in-person transactions into customer profiles. Closest comparable in using physical-world visits as the identity anchor for hospitality, though centered on loyalty rather than conversational SMS.
• Postscript: SMS marketing and conversational commerce platform focused on Shopify-based retail brands. Comparable on two-way SMS automation, segmentation, and AI-driven campaign management.
• Attentive: SMS-first marketing platform purpose-built for retail and ecommerce brands. Closest direct competitor in conversational SMS, segmentation, and AI-driven campaign flows, with overlapping customer profiles in apparel and DTC.

Broad incumbents

• Braze: Enterprise cross-channel customer engagement platform with strong SMS/MMS and AI-driven orchestration. Competes for the same marketing budgets and campaign orchestration layer, but at much larger enterprise scale.
• Iterable: Cross-channel marketing platform supporting SMS, email, push, and in-app messaging with AI-driven journey orchestration. Broader incumbent competing for the same AI-powered campaign automation category.

Emerging players

• BlueBite: NFC and smart-tag platform connecting physical products and locations to digital experiences. Comparable on the NFC-based physical-to-digital bridge, though more focused on product authentication and packaging than SMS-led engagement.
• PopID: Biometric and contactless identity platform for retail, restaurants, and live events. Solves a similar 'identify the customer in the physical world' problem as Sotto, using facial recognition rather than NFC + SMS.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/withsotto
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/withsotto

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors4 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 Sotto