Bump Technologies Raises $16.5 Million for Proximity Sharing App
According to the New York Times, app developer Bump Technologies will announce it has raised $16.5 million in venture capital this Tuesday. Investors include the existing Sequoia Capital and Ron Conway as well as a new participant, the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm.
“Bump started in 2008 as a way for people to exchange contact information without trading old-fashioned paper business cards. But in its newest incarnation, the start-up wants to become a mobile social network for exchanging photos and messages with family and friends.”
The Android and iPhone Bump app allows Smartphone holders to quite literally bump two devices together in order to exchange data. While Bump was originally targeting business information, users share about 40,000 contacts and almost a million photos per day, which is the reason behind the social-networking transit.
In light of Andreessen Horowitz’s investment, partner Marc Andreesse joined Bump’s board of directors. The app was dubbed as a different kind of apps which combines real-world experience with mobile tech. While Bump is not awfully profitable, its potential alone probably qualifies the $16.5M the company raised in funding.
In other mobile app development we have the launch of Google Goggles 1.3 for Android and iPhone as well as social location-based game SCVNGR’s third round of funding, in which it raised $15M. Additionally, we also covered Angry Birds’ expansion to Playstation 3 and PlayStation Portable here.
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