Popl vs Shaped
Side-by-side comparison of AI visibility scores, market position, and capabilities
NFC digital business card platform with 3M+ devices sold; tap-to-share contact and social profiles with Popl for Teams enterprise offering competing with Linq and HiHello.
About
Popl is a digital business card and professional networking platform that uses NFC (near-field communication) technology embedded in a physical card, badge, or wristband to instantly share contact information, social profiles, and portfolio links — replacing paper business cards with a tap-to-share digital profile. Founded in 2020 by Jason Alvarez-Cohen and Nick Alvarez-Cohen in Los Angeles, California, Popl has raised approximately $12 million and has sold over 3 million NFC devices, becoming one of the leading brands in the digital business card market.\n\nPopl's physical products (cards, tags, wristbands with embedded NFC chips) link to a Popl digital profile containing contact information, social media links, website, portfolio, and any other content the user wants to share. When someone taps a Popl device with their smartphone, they immediately see the owner's digital profile and can save contact information with one tap — no app required for the recipient. Popl for Teams is a B2B product enabling companies to manage employee digital cards with consistent branding.\n\nIn 2025, Popl competes with Linq, HiHello, and Blinq for the digital business card market. The market for NFC business cards grew significantly post-COVID as professionals sought contactless alternatives to paper card exchange. The B2B segment (Popl for Teams) has become the primary growth driver, as companies standardize digital card distribution across sales teams and ensure consistent brand representation. Popl's 2025 strategy focuses on growing the enterprise Popl for Teams segment, adding CRM integrations (auto-syncing new contacts to Salesforce or HubSpot), and building lead capture analytics that show which networking interactions convert to business opportunities.
Managed recommendation API with deep-learning personalized feeds; $8M Series A from Madrona, serving Outdoorsy and QVC with Meta-caliber personalization for companies without ML engineering teams.
About
Shaped is a San Francisco-based machine learning infrastructure company that provides production-ready recommendation systems and personalized feed APIs that businesses integrate to deliver relevant content, products, and notifications to users — eliminating the need to build and maintain complex recommendation engineering in-house. Founded by former Meta recommendation systems engineer Tullie Murrell, Shaped raised $8 million in Series A funding in July 2024 from Madrona Venture Group and Global Founders Capital, serving customers including Outdoorsy (peer-to-peer RV rental), Brazilian grocery app Trela, and QVC.
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