When former Apple employee Jeff Witten appeared on Season 9, Episode 23 of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” his goal was to eliminate coinage from cash transactions. Enter CoinOut: an app for retailers and merchants to help customers deposit loose change into a digital account. Looking for $250,000 for a 7.5% stake in his company on a $3.3 million valuation, Witten held his own against the Sharks, even turning down Kevin O’Leary’s offer because of his remarks during the presentation.
Cool and composed, Witten did accept Robert Herjavec’s offer, though it never came to fruition. Despite this setback, CoinOut has seen success and has evolved quite a bit since being on the show. As an app, it evolved from a way for users to save loose change digitally into a way for them to earn rewards for scanning retail receipts. As a company, it’s raised $2 million in funding, and Witten is no longer at the helm.
Though it no longer resembles anything like what was originally pitched on “Shark Tank,” its evolution has helped it transform into a popular app that receives favorable reviews online. Even if the company changes more often than the rate of microplastics entering your brain, maintaining a strong and successful presence online for nearly 10 years is no small task.
How does CoinOut work?
When Jeff Witten originally appeared on “Shark Tank” with his idea, it looked entirely different from what you’ll find today. Originally, CoinOut worked with merchants and shops to offer customers a chance to deposit any change from a cash sale into a digital account tied to the user’s phone number. Users could then deposit the savings into a bank account, donate it, exchange it for Amazon gift cards, or use the money at participating CoinOut locations.
Today, the app has a larger focus on selling consumer behavior data via users earning rewards for scanning and submitting store receipts. Users simply use their iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, or even Apple Vision Pro to photograph their receipts from any U.S. store or retailer. Scanned receipts give users a certain number of Coins, which can be redeemed for gift cards or deposited directly into a Venmo or PayPal account.
Adding a gaming element to the mix, CoinOut offers users five different reward tiers, giving them the opportunity to earn more Coins for their receipts. The app includes Missions as well, which involve users completing certain tasks such as surveys to earn additional bonus. Some users may receive special promotions, such as the Food & Beverage Journal, which entails submitting a log of what they consume every day for a week to earn more Coins.
What happened to CoinOut after Shark Tank?
After Witten’s appearance on “Shark Tank,” CoinOut as an app didn’t just evolve; the company did as well. After accepting Herjavec’s offer of $250,000 for a 15% stake in the company contingent on finding success with a large retailer, the deal fell through once the cameras were off. However, just like “Shark Tank” alumni MTailor and MuteMe, the company continued seeing success despite this setback, as CoinOut was acquired by IRI Worldwide in March 2021.
By this time, users had scanned over 3 million receipts each month, and by June 2021, CoinOut was reporting annual revenue of $12 million. Witten would leave CoinOut in April 2022, and since then, he has served as an advisor for several companies while also being the Co-Founder of Sheer Health, Inc: a company that focuses on helping users with health insurance policies and medical billing.
CoinOut is still available in the Apple App Store, where it has a solid 4.7 out of 5-star rating with close to 78,000 reviews. Within the Google Play Store, it holds a 4.3 out of 5-star rating with nearly 57,000 reviews and over a million downloads. Users praise CoinOut for being incredibly simple to use and an easy way to earn rewards for receipts they were receiving anyway, though many note that it can take quite some time to earn anything substantial.
