Raleigh location-tracking startup raises $2 million as it looks to expand
Reveal Mobile, a Raleigh-based startup that specializes in analyzing mobile location data, has raised $2 million in a new round of funding from investors, which will be used to expand the company, CEO Brian Handly told The News & Observer.
The company plans to beef up its sales, marketing and engineering staff, Handly said. The funding is part of a Series A round that Handly said could bring in more in the coming weeks and months.
“We’ve really developed a good sales and marketing machine,” Handly said in a phone interview. “... Once you build that and it is a proven model, it is time to step on the gas.”
Reveal Mobile has developed tools that track and aggregate anonymized cellphone location data to gain insights on things like foot traffic at stores. The company uses that data to build reports to help clients see how many people are visiting their locations, their competitors’ locations and what their foot traffic looks like over time.
For example, foot traffic at 11 Target locations in the Raleigh area was up 80% in the last four weeks compared to the prior four weeks, or roughly April over March, according to data the company shared with The N&O.
The company’s customers include advertising firms like Mobilads, which advertises on rideshare vehicles, and the data intelligence company Plunge Digital.
Handly said Reveal Mobile had been talking to investors before the coronavirus pandemic shut down most of the economy and caused advertising budgets to shrink. The company’s three main client types are advertising agencies, brands and media companies, looking to learn more about the people shopping in their stores, using their products or visiting their websites.
While those industries are taking a hit during the pandemic, Handly said Reveal Mobile is actually expecting more investment to go toward location data services as part of an effort to target consumers more efficiently. While the company declined to reveal revenue numbers, Handly said sales in the first quarter of 2020 were up 86% from a year prior.
Investors putting money into the company this round include the Durham-based venture capital firms Bull City Venture Partners and IDEA Fund Partners, South Carolina-based investment firm Venture South and several others. Founded in 2015, the company had raised $6 million before this round, according to the venture capital tracker Crunchbase.
David Jones, a general partner at Bull City Venture Partners, said raising money during a downturn will allow Reveal Mobile to play offense while many companies are forced to act conservatively.
“I think it is a big advantage,” he said. “I think there are going to be some startups that go by the wayside [because of COVID-19]. A lot of their competitors will either potentially go away or will throttle back.”
Jones added that the money should give Reveal Mobile enough cash to operate comfortably for at least a year.
The company has 27 full-time employees and was expecting to hire 12 more by the end of the year, Handly said, though he acknowledged that the effects of COVID-19 could change that number.
The ubiquity of smart phones has allowed a growing number of companies to tap into geolocation data for business analytics or targeted advertising. Startups like Foursquare have grown tremendously in recent years because of their location data technology, and tech giants like Google have been monitoring use of Google Maps to determine how people are complying with stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic.
But the growth in that technology has also led to many concerns from privacy advocates. A survey by the firm eMarketer, found that around 30% of smartphone owners in the U.S. say they are uncomfortable sharing location data, though the majority are either neutral or OK with it.
Recent laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act and Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation have given consumers more ability to keep their data from being used for advertising and analytics. A software update last year for iPhones gives users more reminders that apps are using their location data and what options they have to limit that ability.
A New York Times report from last year on the topic of apps tracking location data found that more than 500 apps were using Reveal Mobile’s location-gathering code.
Jones said more restrictive regulations on location data is probably the biggest potential headwind for Reveal Mobile.
For his part, Handly said he would love to see the federal government issue its own overarching regulations on the topic. He said the company is already compliant with the California privacy law, and it allows people to request their location data not be used or sold.
“What we want is more transparency with the consumer,” Handly said. “We want the consumer to have the right to opt out of data and we want transparency with their data.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 11:30 AM with the headline "Raleigh location-tracking startup raises $2 million as it looks to expand."
