Platform for B2B marketing partnerships Partner has raised $200,000 in a Melbourne seed investment, an early stage venture from VC Skalata Ventures.

The startup on the market describes itself as one “matchmaker for business partnerships” connecting brands and companies in the face of rising costs and decreasing reliability of online advertising.

Partnar offers an alternative to pay-per-click marketing campaigns for brands to more organically increase awareness, subscribers and revenue through partnerships.

They can use the platform to target their chosen customer demographics and psychographics and be matched with relevant partners, using a range of partnership types, such as email and social media campaigns, and effectively share their customer bases .

Founders Jamie Pitt and Ryan Elliott wanted to revolutionize the way B2B partnerships are created, at a time when people can opt out of app tracking online and cookies are being phased out.

Now that users can opt out of app tracking and the phasing out of cookies, advertisers can’t track, target, exclude or personalize users as easily as before.

Elliot said Partner reduces the time and resources marketing teams spend trying to connect with partners.

“It’s about understanding lifestyles, bringing communities together and forging value-driven partnerships,” he said.

Pitt said their product translates best into e-commerce and SaaS.

“In e-commerce, there are so many valuable resources you can use for partnerships. They usually have a social following, an email list, a customer base — even closed Facebook groups and communities,” he said.

“But they also have orders every week where they can put flyers and samples from other companies.

“SaaS has always been quite tech savvy and they are always looking for technical partnerships, integrations and channel partnerships. So those partners are also easy to match.”

Partnar’s customer base already includes Naked Wines, BeforePay and emerging food company HelloFresh.

In one Partnar contest, BeforePay placed promotional flyers in HelloFresh’s e-commerce deliveries, and in return, HelloFresh secured access to 650,000 email addresses.

Elliot said a pairing between Instyle Solar and the Tesla rent/test drive startup evee had a strong alignment between brand values, and that an email campaign alone generated a $30,000 profit for Instyle Solar.

Skalata investment manager Tom Smalley said he was excited about Partnar’s solution to address unreliable third-party data in marketing.

“Advertisers who have not focused on first-hand data will face huge challenges over the next 12 months,” he said.

“Partnar’s emphasis on brand partnerships provides brands with an increasingly valuable and authentic way to reach new customers in their target audience.”