Pogo Launches World's First AI Research Platform Powered by Purchase-Verified Buyers; Announces $32M Raised to Date

NEW YORK, June 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Pogo today launched the world's first AI researcher that puts brands in direct conversation with thousands of purchase-verified buyers of any product. All in a matter of hours, at a scale never before possible.

The company also announced that it has raised $32 million in funding to date from leading investors, founders and creators, including Josh Buckley (Buckley Ventures), Mantis (The Chainsmokers), 20VC (Harry Stebbings), Village Global, Lenny Rachitsky, the founders of Honey, and more.

Founded in 2020, Pogo operates a consumer app with 3 million opted-in U.S. users, with visibility into 1 in every 150 U.S. shopping trips - across $470+ billion in transaction value. Brands tap this network to reach and understand real customers through AI-moderated interviews, quantitative surveys, and always-on behavioral intelligence.

The Pogo app has been rated the #1 loyalty app in the U.S. by Newsweek two years running, because it helps everyday people earn money from their own data. Millions of Americans are able to earn and save hundreds of dollars a year by sharing their data, including card transactions, digital and physical receipts, app usage, and location visits - with transparent controls over which data use cases they participate in. Pogo users also save automatically via fee refunds, class action settlements, insurance savings, and more.

Traditional consumer research has long been plagued by issues with fraud, overrun by survey bots and people lying to qualify for interviews. Brands making billion dollar decisions based on data that they can't trust. And consumers haven't fared much better - sitting through endless screener questions, only to get disqualified before the study begins. It's a broken experience on both sides. Pogo was built to fix that.

Pogo gives brands the ability to talk to real, purchase-verified respondents based on observed SKU-level transaction data, at a level of granularity that's never existed before: buyers of a product that just launched in stores last week, or a high-value customer who just churned to a competitor.

In the Pogo Platform, brands simply type the audience they want to reach. Pogo's AI finds the right people in the Pogo network, generates a discussion guide, launches thousands of AI-moderated video interviews simultaneously, and delivers transcripts, highlight reels, and actionable insights in hours. Brands can also run quantitative surveys against the same audiences. Always-on triggers can automatically engage consumers the moment behaviors change, capturing feedback while decisions are still fresh.

Dozens of the world's largest consumer brands, consulting firms, and investment funds already use Pogo to drive measurable impact.

"Prior to Pogo, the platform we were using had a couple of limitations. We really didn't have confidence in the output of those surveys because people could tell you whatever they wanted in order to qualify," said Shannon Clayton, Head of Private Label Marketing at OFI, a $20B private label food manufacturer. "With Pogo's receipt verification, we felt so much more confident in the data. We presented the information internally and immediately made a business decision. That doesn't usually happen. Ultimately, that's going to lead to a multi-million dollar business impact for us."

Client applications span every category where consumer behavior matters:

• A leading CPG interviewed buyers of a newly launched product, uncovered packaging flaws, and quickly adjusted its supply chain before broader rollout
• A top tech company interviewed robotaxi users to understand why some ride again - and why others churn after their first ride
• A Fortune 500 food manufacturer built a data-backed multi-year view of how GLP-1s are changing what people buy
• A leading investor used Pogo to identify paying Gen Z subscribers of an AI tool as part of investment due diligence

As AI exhausts public data, the real competitive advantage for brands will be high-fidelity consumer feedback.

"If we do our job right, Pogo becomes the world's most trusted source of human truth. The facts of what people bought, when, and how often, but also the story behind it: the emotion, the context, what drove them," said co-founder and CEO Dom Wong. "The result is a better system for all sides: smarter decisions for businesses, better products and services for consumers, and a new way for people to earn by sharing their lived experiences."

About Pogo

Pogo is an AI research platform powered by purchase-verified consumer data. Through its consumer app, more than 3 million opted-in Americans earn money from their own data by sharing transactions, receipts, app usage, and location visits. Brands use Pogo to reach verified buyers through AI-moderated interviews, quantitative surveys, and always-on behavioral intelligence. With visibility into 1 in every 150 U.S. shopping trips, Pogo helps companies understand the people behind every purchase. Pogo has raised $32 million in funding and was founded in 2020 by Oskar Melking, Shikhar Mohan, and Dom Wong. Learn more at joinpogo.com.

SOURCE Pogo Technologies