cardu

What cardu does

Cardu Global Oy is a privately held Finnish software company, founded in 2012 and headquartered in Oulu, that operates a mobile loyalty and membership card platform. Its core consumer product is the free Cardu app (iOS and Android), which lets users store unlimited loyalty, membership, benefit, and staff cards — accessible offline — and receive location-based offers and stamps via QR code and NFC. The app has accumulated a community of more than 500,000 Finnish consumers, with over 1,500,000 plastic cards converted to digital form, and Cardu frames its proposition around an environmental narrative of displacing an estimated 70 billion plastic cards globally.

On the business side, Cardu sells a quote-based subscription product, Mobile Card, to restaurants, retail stores, unions and associations, sports clubs, shopping malls, and public-sector entities, with administrative workflows handled through the Cardu Manager console. A complementary B2B SaaS module, Cardu Mailer, is an HTML newsletter platform directly integrated with the member/customer register and delivers more than 1,000,000 newsletters per month. Cardu Mailer is GDPR-compliant and enables targeted campaign communication without separate mailing-list synchronization.

Revenue is generated entirely from the B2B side via custom-priced, multi-year contracts; the consumer app is free and funded indirectly by the enterprise base. The company is founder-owned with no disclosed external investment, serves Finland as its primary market with a Swedish-language presence, and has received EU funding to extend the platform into an international winter sports community service. Cardu is a small (1–10 employees) but operationally stable SMB SaaS business layered on a two-sided mobile wallet ecosystem.

Name

cardu

Legal name

Cardu Global Oy

Website

https://cardu.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Cardu Global Oy operates a Finnish mobile loyalty and membership card platform. Its free consumer app serves 500,000+ users, while businesses subscribe to Cardu Manager for digital loyalty, membership, and staff cards, and to Cardu Mailer for integrated newsletter campaigns.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Oulu

HQ country

Finland

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Consumer App (Freemium): The Cardu mobile app is free for consumers to download and use. Revenue is generated indirectly through the business customer base that uses the platform.
2. Business Solutions (B2B): Enterprise businesses pay for Mobile Card solutions including loyalty cards, membership cards, staff cards, and mobile communities. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed.
3. Cardu Mailer Newsletter Service: Newsletter platform integrated with customer register. Organizations pay for the service to send HTML emails to members/customers. Delivers over 1,000,000 newsletters per month.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Cardu provides a mobile loyalty card platform that converts physical plastic loyalty cards, membership cards, benefit cards, and coupons into digital mobile cards for consumers, paired with B2B solutions (Cardu Manager and Cardu Mailer) that enable businesses to issue cards, manage customer registers, and run newsletter marketing campaigns. The consumer-facing Cardu App is free, while enterprise clients subscribe to the Cardu Manager business platform and the Cardu Mailer newsletter service for direct member communications.

Product overview

Cardu is a mobile card platform that transforms physical cards (loyalty cards, membership cards, benefit cards, coupons, stamps) into digital mobile format. The core offering is the Cardu App for consumers, complemented by Cardu Manager for business management and Cardu Mailer for newsletter communications. The platform serves both consumers (free app) and businesses (enterprise solutions), with features including loyalty cards, membership cards, staff cards, stamp passes, mobile coupons, and community management tools.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CarduMailer: A newsletter service platform that allows organizations to create rich HTML emails and communicate with their membership or customer base. Integrated into the member/customer register, with user interface available in Finnish and English.

Products and services

• Cardu App

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 500,000 consumers in the Cardu mobile community
• +3 more outcomes

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Betterswitch LtdminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBetterswitch Ltd (Registered no. 672889, Dundalk, Ireland) serves as a joint controller in Ireland responsible for data of its own customers in Cardu. This is a data protection partnership for serving Irish/EU customers.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Smile.io: Loyalty, referral, and rewards platform for Shopify and e-commerce brands. Overlaps with Cardu's merchant-facing loyalty and customer engagement tools, especially for retail and consumer brands.
• Stamp Me: Digital stamp card loyalty platform with merchant-facing tools and a consumer app. Closely aligned with Cardu's stamp pass and mobile loyalty offering for SMB merchants.
• Voucherify: API-first loyalty, referral, and promotion platform for product teams. Comparable to Cardu's coupon and loyalty infrastructure, though delivered as a developer API rather than a turnkey app.
• Passkit (by Block): Platform for creating and distributing mobile wallet passes for loyalty, membership, and coupons. Directly comparable to Cardu's mobile card and pass distribution capabilities for businesses.
• LoyaltyLion: Loyalty and rewards platform focused on e-commerce merchants, offering points, tiers, and member communications. Comparable to Cardu Manager's loyalty program capabilities, though LoyaltyLion focuses on online retailers.
• Stocard: Mobile wallet app that digitizes loyalty and membership cards across multiple retailers. Directly comparable to Cardu's consumer-facing mobile card wallet; Stocard was acquired by Klarna, illustrating both the strategic value and consolidation dynamics of the category.

Emerging players

• Antavo: Loyalty program platform purpose-built for retail, fashion, and lifestyle brands. Comparable enterprise-tier loyalty engine to Cardu Manager, particularly for member-based organizations.
• Pass2U Wallet: Mobile wallet platform for storing passes, loyalty cards, tickets, and coupons on iOS and Android. Directly comparable technology stack to Cardu's mobile card and offline access approach.

Broad incumbents

• Yotpo: Broader customer marketing platform including loyalty, reviews, and SMS. Competes in the same enterprise wallet-share battle as Cardu for merchant retention budgets, with a much larger product suite.
• Square Loyalty (Block): Built-in loyalty program feature within Square's broader POS and payments ecosystem. Competes by offering loyalty as part of an integrated commerce stack, lowering the appeal of standalone solutions like Cardu for SMB merchants.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cardu-app

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 cardu