-- $500k round led by Led by Morado Venture Partners --
Los Angeles – April 20, 2011 – HipGeo (www.hipgeo.com), a developer of a location-aware platform, today announced that it has completed a $500,000 initial round of financing. The lead investor is Morado Venture Partners, a seed-stage fund run by former Yahoo executives Ash Patel and Michael Marquez. Other investors include Galen Buckwalter, former chief scientist of eHarmony, and prominent San Diego-based angel investor Bob Bingham.
To register to become a HipGeo beta user, please visit: www.hipgeo.com
The HipGeo location-aware platform includes smartphone apps, a website and an API. HipGeo automatically creates a record of the places users go and how they get there. The smartphone apps enable users to continuously record and organize their lives around geography. Information such as location, routes, places, comments, photos, and other forms of user-generated content are archived and can be private or shared through integration with Facebook, Twitter, SMS, and email. Friends can access this information from their phones or on the web to see the shared individual, private group, or general public’s activities, content, and history for a geographic place or region. The API will be open to third-party developers.
"We are using this funding to expand our development team and develop an array of new features that will enhance the user experience," says company co-founder Rich Rygg. "The growth of location-based smartphone applications is an exciting trend, and we are excited to be at the leading edge of this important new mode of social networking and connectivity."
Patel says that, "HipGeo is developing the next generation of geolocation services, and was founded by a strong team of ex-Yahoos who understand the power of mobile applications. This investment was an easy decision to make, and we are excited to be part of a strong venture that we feel will be an important player in this growing market."
About HipGeo
HipGeo (www.hipgeo.com) is a developer of location-aware platforms including smartphone apps, websites and APIs that
automatically create a record of the places users go and how they get there. The company launched in 2011 and is privately held.
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