NEW YORK, NY — (Marketwire) — 07/26/11 — ThinkNear today launched an easy and automated solution for local merchants to increase customer visits and generate additional revenue. The ThinkNear system monitors when businesses have unused capacity and seamlessly brings in customers nearby by displaying discounts on their mobile phone. The service is currently open in New York City for restaurants, spas and hair salons.
ThinkNear today also announced that it closed $1.6 million in seed financing led by IA Ventures. Google Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, Real Ventures, ff Venture Capital, Zelkova Ventures, BoldStart VC and several leading angel investors including David Tisch and David Cohen of TechStars also participated in the round.
Local business owners have enough on their plate running their business and do not want to offer discounts during times when they are already busy. ThinkNear takes over the pain of managing mobile marketing and discount campaigns by handling the entire process and creating the right discounts based on the real-time capacity of businesses at any given time during the day.
Eli Portnoy, CEO of ThinkNear, said, “Daily deals and other coupon services are great for consumers, but business owners need help creating and managing offers that are actually good for business. ThinkNear creates discounts when a business has excess capacity, and gets the offers in front of the right consumer. This helps businesses become more profitable without any additional effort.”
ThinkNear was started on the premise that local businesses could have access to the same technologies that massive companies have been using for years to maximize revenue. The company has developed technology and algorithms that can automatically determine slow times for merchants and optimize the right discount to get customers through the door. Customers do not need to download any specific application or visit any particular site as the discounts are surfaced on mobile apps and websites they are already using.
Roger Ehrenberg from IA Ventures, said, “The online and offline worlds are beginning to merge and the next evolutionary phase will be to bring online optimization technologies to stores and businesses on Main Street. ThinkNear is doing exactly that by leveraging technology and data to help local merchants make more money without any additional effort.”
“There is a large market opportunity to bring the world of real-time analytics to brick and mortar small businesses,” said Rich Miner, partner at Google Ventures. “ThinkNear-s technology enables merchants to increase foot traffic to their stores at any time by leveraging information relevant to their location and context.”
Any merchant signing up over the next 90 days will receive a three month free-trial. Merchants can sign-up and find additional information at .
IA Ventures funds early-stage Big Data companies creating competitive advantage through data
Google Ventures is the venture capital arm of Google Inc. We seek to discover and help develop great companies, and believe in the power of entrepreneurs to do amazing things. Our investments range from seed to late stage, across a broad range of industries, including consumer Internet, digital media, software, hardware, and biotechnology. We embrace the challenge of helping young companies grow from the proverbial garage to global relevance. For more information, visit .
As the Venture Capital investment arm of Qualcomm, the world leader in next-generation mobile technologies, Qualcomm Ventures has been making strategic investments in early-stage technology companies since 2000. With a $500 million fund commitment, Qualcomm Ventures seeks to make strategic investments in early stage high-technology companies that have the potential to dramatically transform our world.
Metamorphic Ventures invests in start up and early stage technology companies in digital media and digital commerce. The Metamorphic team has hands-on operating experience, from start up to exit. We have all personally experienced the ups and downs of building new businesses and see our role as true partners and advisors to help an entrepreneur to succeed. We are truly the entrepreneur-s fund.
ff Venture Capital partners with startups that can be the low cost, disruptive player in their respective industry. With the right management team and adequate financing, our companies can grow to become tomorrow-s leaders. Our goal is to build great companies and generate significant returns for our partners: management teams and investors alike.
ThinkNear provides a yield management solution for local businesses that automatically helps drive incremental revenue and higher profitability. The ThinkNear system takes less than five minutes to set-up, requires no hardware, and monitors each client-s location to determine the optimal time to create mobile discounts.
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