UgaRef

About UgaRef

Good local businesses, a fair deal, nothing to figure out.

UgaRef is a Toronto company. From restaurants and salons to florists, renovation and heating-and-cooling companies — across eight categories of everyday life — we find local businesses worth trying, agree a real deal with each, and put them all in one app.

A Toronto main street in golden light: a bistro, a Cantonese restaurant, a florist, a salon and a renovation van.

Why we started

Both sides of the counter were being let down.

Restaurants, salons, florists, renovation and HVAC companies pay for ads and still can't tell which customers actually came because of them. A blanket discount mostly rewards the regulars who would have come anyway.

People, meanwhile, have good businesses scattered across a dozen apps and can't tell which deals are real. Trying someone new takes research nobody has time for.

We think the fix is simple: someone who knows the neighbourhood picks the businesses, agrees a deal that is worth it for both sides, and makes it impossible to copy.

What we do

One app, two kinds of people.

A customer browsing UgaRef on her phone.

For customers

Pick a category, pick a business, show a live code.

  • Eight categories — food, wear, home, getting around, fun, learning, health and travel.
  • Every business is chosen by us, with its photos, locations and deal on one card.
  • Your code keeps refreshing and only lives in your app — screenshots don't work.
  • A small shop of things we like, with free shipping in Canada or pickup.
Read the customer guide →
A cashier scanning a customer's code at a restaurant counter.

For businesses

New customers you can count, on your own terms.

  • We agree the deal with you and set up your listing: logo, photos, locations.
  • Cashiers sign in on their own phones and scan the customer's code.
  • Every sale through UgaRef is recorded: the bill, the discount, who served them.
  • No fee per visit, and no money passes through UgaRef at your counter.
Read the business guide →

What we stand for

Four promises.

  1. 01

    We pick the businesses.

    Nobody buys their way onto UgaRef. Every business is one we would send a friend to.

  2. 02

    A deal is a deal.

    The terms you see are the terms you get. Codes already taken keep them, even if a deal changes later.

  3. 03

    Codes can't be copied.

    Each code lives about 90 seconds, in one person's app. Screenshots and forwarded codes are refused at the counter.

  4. 04

    Founding members: free for life.

    Join in our first wave and you will never pay to use UgaRef.

Where we are

Toronto first, one neighbourhood at a time.

We are starting in Toronto and the GTA, visiting each business ourselves to set it up and train the team. We would rather grow one neighbourhood that works than a map that doesn't.

Say hello.

A business that should be on UgaRef, a question, or an idea — we read everything.

Join UgaRef — free for lifehello@ugaref.app