Target retail tech accelerator alum makes good

One of the retail tech start-ups from the inaugural class of the Target + Techstars retail accelerator program is expanding.



Branch Messenger, a mobile app that lets hourly workers easily swap shifts, view schedules and message one another, has raised $6.8 million in a Series A funding round. This brings the company's total funding to more than $10 million, according to The Star Tribune, and makes Branch Messenger the most successful start-up that participated in last year’s inaugural class of Target's Techstars retail accelerator.



Atif Siddiqi founder and CEO of Branch Messenger, launched the company in Los Angeles in 2015. During his time with the accelerator program, Siddiqi ran a successful pilot in 10 Target stores, and later moved its U.S. headquarters to Minneapolis.



The app now has tens of thousands of active users that include a number of individual Walgreens or Domino's locations. Siddiqi is also actively signing up more big company customers, the report said.



Siddiqi plans to use the extra resources to double his workforce, which has grown from three people to 20 in the past year, The Star Tribune said.



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