A New Chapter for Brand Advocacy

London-headquartered Duel Tech has announced its $16 million Series A funding round, led by Molten Ventures, to accelerate its mission of reimagining how brands grow through advocacy.

The platform enables companies to build, manage, and measure communities of micro-influencers, content creators, and brand ambassadors, giving brands a scalable alternative to digital ads. With existing clients including Charlotte Tilbury, Monica Vinader, NEOM Organics, and ELEMIS, Duel Tech is quickly becoming the infrastructure behind social commerce.

By eliminating overreliance on expensive ad ecosystems, Duel allows brands to generate customer acquisition and retention in ways that are not only cost-effective but also authentic and sustainable.

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Why the World Needed a Duel Tech

The traditional advertising playbook is breaking. Costs for digital ads have risen more than 70% over the past five years, while consumer trust in advertising is at an all-time low. Research shows that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people over ads - yet many brands still spend most of their budgets on paid media.

Duel Tech’s platform flips the script by turning loyal customers and passionate fans into advocates. Instead of shouting into the void with ads, brands can now mobilize the people who already believe in them - scaling reach without losing authenticity.

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Founders with an Unconventional Edge

Behind Duel Tech’s momentum are co-founders Paul Archer, a world-record-breaking adventurer and former brand ambassador, and Panagiotis Tsarouchis, a viral games developer.

Their approach is not just technical but deeply human. The team combines psychologists, brand experts, and community strategists who understand that advocacy isn’t just about transactions - it’s about identity, belonging, and shared values.

As a B Corp Certified company, Duel is also aligned with the values of modern consumers who expect brands to prioritize people and the planet. This alignment between ethos and execution is what makes Duel a particularly timely player in today’s landscape.

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Why Advocacy is the Real Growth Engine

Here’s where founders should lean in: advocacy is not simply about activating a few influencers. It’s about creating a structured system for community-led growth - something most brands fail at because they treat it as a campaign, not an infrastructure.

What Duel has done is build an operational backbone for advocacy. Their system:

• Tracks ROI of advocacy in comparison to ads
  
• Manages distributed social affiliates and ambassadors at scale
  
• Measures long-term impact on customer acquisition and retention
  

Here’s the key insight founders often overlook: the compounding effect of advocacy. Unlike ads, which reset to zero after spend, advocacy builds an asset that grows in value over time. Every ambassador onboarded, every advocate empowered, strengthens a network effect that compounds like interest. This is the type of growth engine that can help brands weather market shifts, privacy regulation changes, and algorithm uncertainty.

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A Strategic Shift for Founders Everywhere

For founders across industries, Duel Tech’s rise underscores a broader point: you can’t rent attention forever. You need to own advocacy.

The smart move isn’t to abandon paid media altogether - it’s to treat it as a spark, not the fire. Ads can get eyes on you, but community-driven advocacy keeps customers loyal, engaged, and multiplying.

Founders who start building advocacy infrastructure early will find that their customer acquisition costs decline while their brand equity grows - a powerful combo in a market where investors are scrutinizing efficiency and sustainable unit economics.

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Who’s Backing the Future of Advocacy?

This Series A was led by Molten Ventures, a venture capital firm known for backing bold, category-defining startups.

By aligning with Molten, Duel Tech gains not only capital but also a partner experienced in scaling European SaaS companies to global relevance. Given Molten’s track record, this partnership is likely to help Duel expand beyond the UK and into new markets where brand advocacy is still in its infancy.

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Market Outlook: The Rise of Social Commerce

The timing of Duel’s raise couldn’t be better. According to Statista, global social commerce sales reached $724 billion in 2022 and are expected to surpass $6 trillion by 2030. Within this growth, brand advocacy is emerging as a major driver - with studies showing that brands leveraging advocates achieve 2x higher customer lifetime value compared to those reliant solely on ads.

A Nielsen study found that 84% of consumers act on recommendations from people they know, compared to just 33% influenced by online ads. This trust differential is the fuel behind Duel’s thesis, and it’s why investors are betting that advocacy platforms will be central to the future of commerce.

In addition, advertising fatigue is at an all-time high: nearly 40% of consumers now use ad blockers. In this environment, authentic voices carry weight, and community becomes the ultimate distribution channel.

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What’s Next for Duel Tech?

With its new funding, Duel Tech plans to expand its engineering and brand strategy teams, deepen integrations with e-commerce platforms, and scale its global reach. Expect them to double down on analytics - giving brands even clearer visibility into the tangible ROI of advocacy.

As social commerce becomes mainstream, Duel is positioning itself as the operating system for advocacy, helping brands escape the ad treadmill and build growth engines powered by people.

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The Bigger Picture

For founders, marketers, and investors alike, Duel Tech’s raise signals the shift from paid media dependency to community-driven growth.

It’s not just a platform - it’s a philosophy: that the most sustainable way to grow is to turn customers into believers, and believers into advocates. In an economy where authenticity wins, advocacy is no longer optional - it’s the moat.