NFC mobile advertising startup Tapit raises seed funding

Tapit is a new mobile advertising startup, founded in March 2011, that facilitates the sharing and delivery offer NFC-enabled phone by simply clicking anywhere Tapit, you can find the logo.

The company is currently raises seed round of financing from Sydney angels in record time – just 22 days from the field until the round was signed to. This is the quickest investment to date for Angels, Sydney, not-for-profit membership Organization for Angels, which usually invests in Sydney-based startups.

NFC (near field communication), short-range wireless technology, is often associated with mobile payments and mobile wallets these days, as a new way to enable the purchase to the cash. But this is just one of many cases of possible uses for technology that can also support things like file sharing and media between devices, advertising, ticketless deals and much more. It can even be used to perform an action in a NTT DOCOMO TAP "follow" offer, which allows two Twitter users to each other simply by clicking the phone.

The idea is to use the Tapit NFC for use in marketing campaigns, working with agencies, brands, handset manufacturers and carriers. Marketing services include mobile commerce, coupon distribution, ticket sales, surveys and reviews, content delivery, contests and social community (e.g. tap here to "like" us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter).

The company is already involved in several campaigns this year – one for a group of radio Nova Australian radio network billboard JCDecaux and another for Australia's channel 10 TV show "LATVIA" and the third with NFC-based sales in shopping malls.

Says director Jamie Kaninghèm Tapit, speed, which was closed in this round is the approval group Tapit, and business models that we have created around our unique NFC technology. All whom we meet likes the idea of Tapit, it is addictive.

NFC, indeed, will step up from the now ubiquitous barcode scanning technology, which involves the use of Smartphone applications to scan QR codes via camera phone. Unfortunately the NFC usually requires accompanying chip, built into the phone itself. Due to this requirement, it is now back, a limited number of supported phones.

Nevertheless, analysts bullish on NFC in the future, with ABI, predicting 35 million phones to 2012, and Frost & Sullivan, assessment of about 868 million by the year 2015.

Tapit conditions in seed investment were not disclosed, but the Fund normally invests sidecar Angels Sydney between $ 100 K-$ 500 K in its portfolio companies.

View the original article here

LocalResponse buys social advertising on TV and in Philo platform

Leena Rao is currently working as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school of the Medill School of journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007 she helped lead efforts for advocacy and community relationships Congressman Carloyn Maloney in New York. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 where it was ... ? Read More

Local response, the recently launched social advertising platform that enables local businesses to respond to the check-in to marketing campaigns, makes its first acquisition today. Start (formerly Buzzd) acquires Philo, social TV-registration and advertising platform, with the support of partners, a venture North Bridge, DFJ Gotham, Eniac enterprises and others. The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we said the deal all stocks.

Like miso and GetGlue, Philo running social-registration for TV shows. Using Philo, users can have a second screen experience with TV content, being able to see who is watching the show, awards for watching the show and return and much more.

But Nihal Mehta LocalResponse founder says that Philo flattening in the past year, the advertising model, called Reach. Basically the company allows the TV and movie studios to track when people Tweeting about the show or movie, and then send these messages and @ replies with promotions, announcements, and much more. This pivot that drew the attention of the Mehta (not to mention the meta is a partner at Philo in investor Eniac enterprises)

Of course LocalResponse has a similar model. Running aggregates real-time social media check-ins-from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, Instagram and dozens of other services to provide a simple interface for local entrepreneurs to respond directly to their most influential and valuable customers. LocalResponse forcing makes it analyzes massive amounts of data in addition to returns from Twitter firehose Exchange sites and more, to find other forms of checkins photos. This could put a picture on a Instagram dish from a restaurant or Tweeting that you visit a particular bar.

LocalResponse on patented technology collects and prioritizes social data explicitly (i.e. checkins on Foursquare) and indirectly (through the analysis of natural language on Facebook, Twitter, etc., for example "I headed down to ShakeShack"). Mehta said most refunds are many social media platforms, serving up to helping businesses track refunds and implicit skip this key data. Allowing brands to focus on connecting with customers on this implicit data exchange of views and mention of the content (i.e., TV shows and movies), LocalResponse will add another dimension to its platform of social advertising.

Philo also adds another way to work with LocalResponse for major brands such as content properties and entertainment companies. Mehta adds that Fili also brings an experienced engineering team LocalResponse and Filo's Technical Director, Jessica Lowe will be the new CTO LocalResponse.

Since its launch a few months ago the company grows. LocalResponse recently signed his 25 major advertisers for their brand platform. In July some results showed his LocalResponse first major brands, campaigns, performing in 100 times better than traditional online media buys, including repayment rate of 60%.

LocalResponse relies on Verizon, metamorphic ventures, Venture partners, Charles River Ventures, Enterprise BOLDstart, Jim Pallotta, Greycroft partners and others. Mehta said the company aims to raise another round, but also received a number of proposals for acquisition. In fact, it had considered a number of term sheets and offers at the moment. It was unclear how will go Mehta, but this is of course the LocalResponse something when it comes to attracting advertising in social networks for small businesses and brands.

LocalResponse is a platform of social advertising, which brings together public posts and "checkins" across multiple platforms to help brands and companies reach their customers. Brands and agencies use LocalResponse on his shoulder ...

Read More

Philo making TV social (again), allowing you to get in touch with your friends and watch, chat, points and earn awards and loans together. You can browse around television show ...

Read More

View the original article here

Augme technologies for the acquisition of mobile advertising firm Hipcricket for $ 44.5 million.

RIP Empson-writer at TechCrunch. He did not find friends here, he is here to win and you don't forget it. You can contact him at rip [at] techcrunch [dot] com ? more

Mobile marketing service, Augme technologies, today announced that it will acquire Hipcricket, mobile marketing and advertising platform for $ 44.5 million — $ 6 million of whom are in cash and $ 38.5 million. $. United States in the common stock. Hipcricket's shareholders must approve the purchase before it can be finalized, however, the transaction also call for a 12-month payment to make out an additional $ 27.5 million, it seems that the deal would be approved. Augme will take on all Hipcricket in over 50 employees, but firm mobile ad will continue to operate from its offices in Kirkland, Washington.

We profiled Augme in June as a company under the radar on the rise in the mobile advertising space, when she released the latest version of its life ads platform. As we wrote at the time "Ad life allows marketers, brands and agencies to plan, build, test, deploy, and track mobile marketing programs — with the most notable feature of the patented technology Augme is now the fact that he is able to reach target groups the remaining device agnostic".

Purchase Augme in Hipcricket should be hot on the heels of its acquisition Jagtag for $ 5.5 million two weeks ago. Jagtag specializes in barcodes and QR codes and Hipcricket offers marketing solutions that include SMS, MMS, mobile websites, advertising networks, and branded applications, Augme is firing on all cylinders in an attempt to round out its platform.

"We expect additional resources Augme, JAGTAG and Hipcricket, combined, will provide the most powerful Augme mobile marketing solutions best of breed global brand leaders, backed by strong intellectual property portfolio, including patented technology and software as a service technology platform (" SaaS ")," said Augme Director Paul arena.

Augme publicly traded on the over the counter bulletin board since 2002. Total income of the company in 2011, $ 2.8 million, but Augme management told me last month that it expects revenue to 16 million dollars in the fiscal year 2012 and will achieve positive cash flow next year. The company is being prepared as a hot growth sector (Gartner expects mobile ad revenue hit $ 3.3 billion until the end of 2011, more than double revenue in 2010 — and the hockey stick-2015 to $ 20.6 billion), it wouldn't be surprising to see the company continue to acquire attractive mobile solutions, adding his puzzle pieces, as it makes the game to become a leader in the field of mobile marketing.

View the original article here