AREA360 Closes $5.5 Million NZD funding

AREA360

Launch release

FINAL

UNDER EMBARGO / FOR RELEASE ON THURS, 3/9/2015, 5 AM NZST

New Zealand Startup AREA360 Closes $5.5 Million NZD in Series A Funding from Top US Technology Venture Group

STQRY Creator Expands Wellington Office, Opens Seattle Headquarters and Receives New Investment to Scale its Location-Based Experience Products

SEATTLE – September 3, 2015 – AREA360, creator of STQRY, today announced the closing of a $5.5 million NZD Series A round of financing led by top technology investor Madrona Venture Group. In addition, the company announced the opening of their US headquarters in Seattle, Washington and the hiring of a top-notch executive team. The company’s products are built for large and frequently visited locations such as airports, hospitals and museums, enabling non-technical managers to easily create meaningful experiences based on location data, harnessing the power of beacons, GPS, WiFi and more. AREA360 products are already in use by more than 400 customers worldwide including Emirates Airlines, , Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.

While most beacon-related systems have been commercialised with a focus on marketing in the retail industry, AREA360 has developed a broadly applicable and elegant solution for any industry. Drawing on the company’s rich history of connecting digital content to physical locations through the STQRY app, AREA360’s advanced solutions now enable proximity based content delivery down to one to three meters, providing the tightest correlation of any beacon/location-aware platform on the market.

“We started AREA360 to give organisations the ability to enhance their customer experience by providing navigation as well as relevant information and unique opportunities along their path” says Chris Smith, AREA360’s founder and CEO. “Using beacon and other location data, our platform enables customers to create a broad portfolio of useful services.

“For example,” Smith continued, “airports can deliver navigation to and from gates, along with a stop at the nearest Starbucks; museums can bring to life that new piece of art by presenting a video on the artist’s inspiration; and an operations manager can track their most valuable assets in real time. The support from New Zealand’s startup community helped us to thrive and our customer response has been overwhelming. We look forward to continuing to grow our business in the U.S., New Zealand and the rest of the world.”

The company saw an opportunity to rapidly advance its business by opening a Seattle-based headquarters, while simultaneously growing the Wellington, New Zealand office into a development powerhouse. AREA360, led by serial New Zealand entrepreneur, founder and CEO Chris Smith, recruited a Seattle-based head of operations in the former GM of OnlineShoes.com, Dave Martine, and a head of marketing in former T-Mobile US leader Nathan J. Peterson, to join Seattle's VP of Global Sales, Jennifer Smith. The company also recruited head of technology Andrew Reid from Zeacom and Navman to lead the thirty person, Wellington-based development group with plans to grow the team to more than forty developers by the end of the year.

AREA360 was formed in 2012 in Wellington and has grown under the leadership of Chris Smith and Ezel Kokcu, enabling the rapid expansion to Seattle, with multiple global offices in the works. The New Zealand community has been a huge supporter in the growth of AREA360 and STQRY, including advisors Gareth Morgan, Dion Mortensen, Alan Gourdie and Sven Baker, as well as organisations such as Callaghan Innovation, NZTE, Grow Wellington, and the ICE Angels.

Quotes:

“Location-aware services provide a delightful customer experience that modern consumers will come to expect,” comments Paul Goodrich, managing director at Madrona Venture Group. “Chris and his team have built an advanced platform that has already reached millions of consumers. We are excited to support them as they continue to expand their business and bring delightful navigation, content and other services to the next million.”

“We congratulate AREA360 on their ongoing growth and success, in particular in the United States,” says New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) Customer Manager Mike Evans. “They are a great example of an ambitious New Zealand tech company growing internationally by entering new markets. Their partnership with Madrona is an important endorsement of their already considerable success. We look forward to continuing to work with the AREA360 team on their ongoing growth in the US and in other markets."

About AREA360

AREA360 is the creator of an innovative mobile location technology platform for large and frequently visited locations such as airports, hospitals and museums that want to enhance the way their customers discover, connect and engage with what's around them. The platform allows any organisation to easily create meaningful experiences based on accurate location data, harnessing the power of beacons, GPS, WiFi and more. AREA360 has more than 400 customers including airlines like Emirates, airports like Denver and Seattle-Tacoma International and museums like the Smithsonian and The Walt Disney Family Museum. AREA360 is based in Seattle. Learn more here.

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