Beacons made more than a few top 10 lists around the tech world’s blogosphere, but few put forth specific steps by which beacons might finally make 2016 the year they established themselves in the retail world. Now, it looks like Estimote is at least keeping beacons’ momentum going into the new year.
TechCrunch reported that Estimote, one of retail’s most established beacon platform providers, has just closed a Series A funding round that netted about $10.7 million for the beacon developer. Javelin Venture Partners led the round, joined by Homebrew, Box Group, Digital Garage, Commerce Ventures and a host of individual investors.
Why a cool $10 million for Estimote now? It might have something to do with Cofounder Steve Cheney’s commitment to furthering beacons past their current forms — namely, pushing coupons and discounts to shoppers’ phones — and to something more advanced and profitable.
“If this technology was just used for push notifications and just for coupons, we would have never started this company,” Cheney told TechCrunch. “Marketers who talk about coupons … it just makes me tired.”
Cheney and Estimote are well-placed to take beacons into their next phase of evolution. Estimote is already partnered with about 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies, and its recently closed partnership with Target has also built up a significant foundation from which to push its showrooming approach to beacon advertising. Instead of working with them in closed betas or development labs, Cheney is set on getting not only sensors but the experiences they provide up close and personal with consumers.
“The future of retail is not just the sensor on the wall,” Cheney told TechCrunch. “It’s your smartphone and screens you look at and it’s things that occur in your natural environment. Return customer revenue has increased, on average, 40 percent quarter on quarter over the last eight quarters dating to Q4 2015.”
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