LOC-AID Secures $13M Series C Round from Private Equity and Venture Investors

BOCA RATON, Fla., Feb. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- LOC-AID, the first and world's largest Location-as-a-Service (LaaS) company to connect the mobile enterprise to wireless subscribers, announced today it has secured $13 million in a Series C financing round to support the company's rapid growth.  The round was led by private equity firm H.I.G. Ventures, venture firm Intersouth Partners, and the Florida Growth Fund, LLC, managed by Hamilton Lane, LLC.

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LOC-AID achieved record results in 2010 and secured commercial connections with all of the largest North American wireless carriers.  Led by President and CEO Rip Gerber, LOC-AID has built a proprietary location platform that allows mobile developers to enable any location-based service for any application on any wireless device.

This round of funding will expand LOC-AID's industry-changing location technology and bolster its ability to connect enterprise developers to wireless customers for a wide range of location-based services including fraud prevention, proximity marketing, asset management, presence, check-in services, and more.

"We took the long-awaited promise of network-based location and made it available to the enterprise developer community," said Rip Gerber, President and CEO of LOC-AID.  "Last year our platform was adopted by the largest wireless carriers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile.  Today we are location-enabling leading corporations in financial services, media, ecommerce, web-based services, transportation, entertainment, healthcare, and government services.  We're excited to have the Florida Growth Fund join as an investor."

"We believe LOC-AID has unlocked the value of location-based services for the enterprise by expanding the reach of location-based services to ALL mobile devices, not just smartphones or devices with GPS technology that require an application to be downloaded to allow for the device to be tracked," said Gregory Baty, Vice President of Hamilton Lane, who manages investments made by the Florida Growth Fund.  "LOC-AID provides that stable and reliable bridge between applications and location data without which the location services eco-system will not grow."

"We're very pleased to add Hamilton Lane to our team," said John Glushik, Partner at Intersouth Partners, and LOC-AID board member.  "Mobile Location Services is experiencing explosive growth, and LOC-AID is the clear leader for the mobile enterprise. This round of financing marks the largest investment made in a 'Location-as-a-Service' company and Intersouth is pleased to continue its support of this great company."

Significant achievements by LOC-AID in the past year:

• Secured network agreements and processed commercial location transactions on all Tier 1 carriers in the United States and Canada: an industry first.  LOC-AID remains the only company that can provide mobile device location on all of the largest carriers in North America.
• Achieved the highest wireless subscriber reach in the industry, which includes over 90 percent of all wireless subscribers in the United States, Canada and Mexico, representing a footprint of over 350 million mobile subscribers and wireless devices.
• Led the industry in location look-ups for third-party application developers.
• Recognized as the only pure-play "Location-as-a-Service" company in the mobile ecosystem by wireless analysts and media.
• Recognized by the CTIA as the "best-in-class" for mobile location privacy management, developer opt-in guidelines, and permission-based location enablement.
• First and only "Location-as-a-Service" provider announced by Verizon Wireless.
• First and only "Location-as-Service" provider announced by AT&T.
• First and only "Location-as-a-Service" provider launch on Microsoft's developer zone.

LOC-AID can provide real-time, mobile location information to any mobile device, allowing enterprises and mobile users to take advantage of location-based services. The company's rapidly-expanding customer base comprises leading organizations in the financial services, retail, healthcare, machine-2-machine (M2M), education, ecommerce, entertainment, and hospitality industries.

About LOC-AID Technologies

LOC-AID simplifies and manages the complex challenge of locating over 350 million mobile devices for location-based services (LBS).  LOC-AID operates the world's largest and most secure mobile location platform and allows mobile developers to locate their customers for enterprise authentication, fraud management, and hyper-local marketing, all through a single, privacy protected API.  LOC-AID is the only mobile location gateway connected to the largest Tier 1 carriers and partners in the Americas including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint, America Movil, TelCel, Bell Mobility, TELUS, Microsoft, and Qualcomm.  With multiple offices across North America, LOC-AID also offers a portfolio of location-enablement services including geo-fencing, geo-coding, map appends, and location analytics.  For more information, visit www.loc-aid.com.

About H.I.G. Ventures

H.I.G. Ventures partners with entrepreneurs to provide the capital, expertise and relationships necessary to build market-leading businesses. The fund's investment strategies are supported by a growth equity team, focused on high growth companies in need of expansion capital, and a BioVentures team that concentrates on investments in biopharmaceutical, medical device and specialty pharmaceutical companies. With over $550 million in dedicated venture and growth capital under management, the firm's two teams invest throughout North America in early to growth-stage information technology, healthcare, life science, media and service businesses. H.I.G. Ventures is the venture capital affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, a leading private equity investment firm with over $8.5 billion of capital under management, with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New York and San Francisco. For more information, visit www.higventures.com.

About Intersouth Partners

Located in Durham, North Carolina, Intersouth Partners is one of the largest, most active and most experienced early stage venture funds in the country, having invested in more than 100 private companies over the last two decades. Founded in 1985, Intersouth Partners manages $780 million in seven venture capital limited partnerships.  Intersouth seeks a broad range of seed and early-stage investment opportunities throughout the Southeast, focusing on the technology and life sciences sectors. Visit www.intersouth.com or follow us at @intersouth for more information.

About the Florida Growth Fund

The Florida Growth Fund manages $250 million of capital dedicated to prudent investment in technology and growth related businesses with significant presence in the state of Florida. The Florida Growth Fund will seek to enhance Florida's capacity for development, growth and innovation while simultaneously generating an attractive return for the Florida State Board of Administration.  Hamilton Lane serves as the General Partner for the Florida Growth Fund.  For more information, visit www.floridagrowthfund.com.

About Hamilton Lane

Hamilton Lane is an independent financial institution that provides discretionary and non-discretionary private equity asset management services to sophisticated investors worldwide. From offices in several U.S. cities, London, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong, Hamilton Lane offers a full range of investment products and services that enable clients to participate in the private equity asset class on a global and customized basis.

Founded in 1991, Hamilton Lane has grown to more than 145 employees. We have over $107 billion in total assets under management and supervision including over $15 billion of assets under management for managed accounts. We are responsible for over $49 billion in commitments to non-U.S. funds, principally in Western Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

About the SBA

The State Board of Administration provides a variety of investment services to several Florida governmental entities. These include managing the assets of the Florida Retirement System Pension and Investment Plans, the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, the Local Government Surplus Funds Trust Fund, the Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, the Lottery Fund and other smaller funds.

The SBA currently invests in eight asset classes: Domestic Equities, Foreign Equities, Fixed Income, High Yield, Private Equity, Strategic Investments, Real Estate and Cash.

SOURCE LOC-AID Technologies, Inc.

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