Bluedot Raises $9.1 Million in Funding to Meet Surge in Customer Growth

Exponential increase in end user adoption, with over 121M monthly location events

Launches time-based predictive arrival technology so businesses are ready the moment their customers enter a store, arrive at curbside, or visit the drive-thru

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Bluedot

Jul 01, 2020, 10:30 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluedot, which provides location technology for mobile apps to power high-value interactions between brands and their customers, today announced the company has secured $9.1 million in Series B funding led by Autotech Ventures. The current raise brings the total funding for Bluedot to $21.9 million and includes participation by existing investor Transurban and new investors Forefront Ventures, IAG Firemark Ventures, and Mighty Capital. Alexei Andreev, managing director at Autotech Ventures, has joined the Bluedot board of directors, and Jennifer Azapian, a partner at Mighty Capital, has joined as a board observer.

In addition, Bluedot also today announced the launch of Tempo, a predictive time-based arrival technology that will allow marquee customer brands like Dunkin' Donuts, KFC, McDonald's, Transurban, On The Run, and others to receive real-time alerts to know when a consumer is approaching. The new product launch follows record growth for the company with a spike in customer growth of over 2,471 percent increase in unique monthly users in the last 12 months and an average of over 121 million high fidelity, first-party location events monthly.

With Tempo, businesses will always be ready at the exact moment a customer enters a store, drives up to a curbside pickup spot, or arrives at a drive-thru window. Tempo is an advanced alternative to radius-based geofencing. The new product will take into account travel time, traffic patterns, topography, and real-life behaviors, such as how long it takes to get into a vehicle. It provides mobile-based data that can quickly transform businesses, driving towards more efficient operations in the wake of COVID-19.

"Software that can enable businesses to minimize contact is vital," said Autotech Ventures' Andreev. "Moving forward, we see the market favoring contactless solutions and Bluedot is poised to meet this demand. Bluedot's differentiated offering, focus on consumer experience and scalability are key factors for any business's future success, especially as we all rethink mobility and brand interactions."

"With Dunkin', Bluedot has significantly reduced wait time in frictionless drive-thrus, allowing stores to service more vehicles than ever before. Guests can advance straight to the drive-thru pickup window for their meal. Customer satisfaction increases as wait times decrease — the net result is a better customer experience with fresher food. Having a quicker drive-thru experience not only increases mobile order revenue, but also customer throughput," said Jack Clare, Dunkin' Donuts' former Chief Information and Strategy Officer. "This is a game changer — resetting the bar for delivering real convenience and accelerating Dunkin's mobile initiatives."

Bluedot's proprietary location services technology enables brands to deliver real convenience and value to customers by leveraging location insights on mobile apps at the right moments. With 20 times the accuracy over competing solutions, Bluedot helps to improve operations and throughput, boost customer engagements through smarter, contextual messaging, and, ultimately, enable meaningful customer experiences with businesses. Bluedot focuses on driving impactful interactions in quick service and fast casual restaurants, retail, and transportation industries, powering complex use cases like frictionless drive-thru and curbside pickup.

"Mobile location data is powerful but also dynamic and constantly evolving. The ability to tap into this information in real-time with precision is the difference between serving your customers at just the right moment or missing the opportunity altogether. As businesses strive to achieve differentiated, brand-owned experiences, location is the catalyst," said Emil Davityan, CEO of Bluedot. "As we power these bespoke on-the-go customer experiences, privacy and security have always been top of mind - and that's not changing. Enterprises entrust us with their first-party customer data to deliver powerful, valuable interactions. We do not sell or share location data."

About Bluedot
Bluedot's location technology for mobile apps powers meaningful interactions between brands and their customers across key industries including quick service restaurants, retail, and transportation. With pinpoint accuracy, Bluedot's easy-to-implement location technology can identify when a mobile app user arrives at a business, places mobile orders at drive-thrus, arrives at a curbside or pickup spot, or passes a toll location. Inherently compliant with GDPR and CCPA, Bluedot focuses on protecting end-user privacy and never shares or sells personal information.

Top global brands trust Bluedot for their location-based needs. For more information on Bluedot and its solutions, visit bluedot.io.

About Autotech Ventures
Autotech Ventures is a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that manages funds of more than $200 million focused on startups in the $3 trillion ground transportation industry. Autotech Ventures provides startups with capital, ground transportation market intelligence, and access to its transportation focused network which includes executive talent as well as financial and 25+ corporate investors representing a global market capitalization of over $500B. As a lead or follower investor, Autotech Ventures leverages its network to help portfolio companies recruit top industry talent and engage corporations as scale-up partners.

SOURCE Bluedot