In one sentence, what is your product/service?

Ksubaka delivers Moments of Joy (MoJos) for shoppers.

Our network of in-store interactive screens offers playful experiences that delight shoppers with game-like advertising within arm’s reach of the products, increasing brand reach, increasing sales, and increasing consumer insights. 

What problem(s) does it solve?

Ksubaka allows marketers to reach shoppers at scale with a brand message beyond “buy one, get one free” right at the time of decision.

We deliver brand conversion and significant direct uplift of in-store sales where brands engage with consumers. Ksubaka’s in-store playSpots (touch screens) provide millions of ‘Moments of Joy’ (MoJos) a month to consumers through the power of play.

MoJos are created through bespoke gamified experiences, crucially taking place a few feet from the shelves when consumers make purchasing decisions.

An example of Kusbaka’s work for Oreo.

What were the biggest challenges involved in building the tech or growing your team?

As we deploy our playSpots in remote regions throughout China, we treat each one as a mission to Mars.

PlaySpots need to have the autonomy and smarts to be able to work 24/7 in real-time with often patchy data networks in a hostile environment that we cannot reach, and be able to recover and update themselves over-the-air whenever a mobile data network fluctuates enough to allow a modicum of coverage.

At the same time, the majority of tablets are connected the whole time, generating enormous quantities of real-time data.

How will the company make money?

Brands are charged for their campaigns each time a shopper completes a gamified brand experience.

ksubaka

Who is in your team?

Co-founder brothers Julian and Giles Corbett.  

  • Julian, CEO – more than 15 years in entertainment and tech startups (Real 3D, 2010 exit on NYSE). Most recently made Take-Two Interactive the number one publisher in Asia.
  • Giles, COO – serial entrepreneur in mobile games, mobile advertising and global OTT platforms. Most recently founded and developed Libon for Orange Group.

Where would you like to be in one, three and five years’ time?

Having established our service in Asia, we are working to launch in multiple non-Asian countries, reaching over 100m monthly shopper engagements within the next year.

Other than your own, what are your favourite websites/apps/tools?

We are gluttons for online tools from expenses and contracts to bugs and accounts, to our entire development tool chain.

We definitely love Slack… too much – we now need a way to get it back under control.