Locomizer Doubles Valuation In Collider Second Round Investment

Locomizer, the “big data” startup has secured a second round of investment from Collider. The investment, £50k, takes Collider’s holding to 20% and values the firm at more than double its valuation on entering the Collider “Collision Phase” in February. “The company has made excellent progress. We started with two very knowledgeable and very smart scientists and worked with them and the Collider12 brands to refine their proposition and develop their story and find the right application niche. Locomizer now has a very well defined proposition and product offer” explained Rose Lewis, a co-founder of Collider.

“Locomizer were chosen as the investors recognised their ability to achieve significant growth and they have a fantastic patentable algorithm,” Rose continued. “The Collision Phase allowed Locomizer to have access to brand data, test their technology with it, and prove their location analytics truly work. The investors were very impressed by the outcome of their extension experiments, and wanted to invest in this Post-Collision period.”

Alex Poliakov, Locomizer’s co-founder, said that the “additional money validates the strategic direction the company is undertaking, with the development of Audience Discovery Engine that enables audience discovery for relevant targeting based on people mobility patterns.” Locomizer's other co-founder, Alexei, said that he is "very proud to get recognition of Collider again and receive a follow-up investment! It has been an exciting journey with a team of Collider so far. It is unstoppable and life-changing."

UK-based Locomizer is an enterprise location analytics company, which was recently named by Mashable as one of the top 25 startups in the UK. Their world's first Audience Discovery Engine powered by Biology-inspired proprietary algorithm creates highly-targetable user interest profiles by identifying user behavior patterns from location updates (directly from mobile phones or via mobile apps like Twitter, FourSquare, etc). This enables their enterprise customers to uncover the right audience for the right targeting, resulting in higher mobile marketing ROI along with increased conversion and engagement rates. Visit http://www.locomizer.com for more details.

Since joining Collider, Locomizer has since seen their over-seas prospect improve considerably after being accepted into another accelerator in Silicon Valley, Momentum, partnered with Mobile Monday and Racket Space.

Guest Post From Locomizer

 This is the full post that Alexei Poliakov, co-founder of Locomizer, was recently asked to write for the Telefonica blog, which you can see here. 

Recently, we had a very interesting group discussion at the startup networking dinner hosted by Telefonica in San Francisco on “What is the future of maps?”. Since my startup, Locomizer, deals with a lot of location data on a daily basis, I would like to share my thoughts regarding this topic with a broader audience.

First, let us touch on some key trends that are redefining our notion of location and maps. We must admit that the era of persistent location is upon us as we speak. For better or worse, our whereabouts are tracked, analyzed and recorded on a constant basis. The abundance of mobile phones makes it easy to access personal data such as location. For example, cell-tower triangulation tracking generates tons of location data as the nearest cell-tower signals are determined every seven seconds. Moreover, the reality is that personal location data is not confined to just telecoms as it is being generated across multiple verticals. It is imperative for governments and business organizations to obtain customer consent and be more transparent about their usage of personal location data to avoid controversies like the NSA surveillance program.

Despite all these concerns, let’s face it - persistent location is here to stay. Location is our identity – the places we visit in our daily lives define our real-life preferences and interests. Consumers are warming up to the idea of personal location sharing as shown by the increasing usage of Facebook’s Nearby service. Last December, Facebook reported that 250 million users were tagging posts with location on a monthly basis which roughly corresponds to 800 geo-tags a second.

The explosion of personal location data creates a rewarding opportunity for organizations to gain a better understanding of their customers and their needs. However, the challenge is not in data availability but in how it is translated to retrieve the data-driven insights about customer behavior around certain places. To start winning in this space, one must own the “geo-stack” as famously described by Chris Dixon. Nevertheless, controlling the functional layers of geo-stacks, including geography maps, point of interest data, and customer geodata, may not be enough. Industry players must create a winning proposition showcasing a clear benefit for consumers to use their services AND to be at ease whilst sharing their personal location data.

So, to answer “What is the future of maps?”, I would like to paraphrase Fred Wilson and say that the future of maps is in understanding maps with people in them.

Alexei was working for big corporate names in the mobile and wireless domain until he co-founded a startup called Locomizer in February 2013. Locomizer is an enterprise location data analytics platform that enables audience discovery for relevant targeting. In June 2013, Mashable included Locomizer in their list of 25 Top UK startups.

Collider Startups Make Mashable's Top 25 List

  There are many 'Best Startups' lists out there, but most of them focus on the London scene, or that in Silicon Valley. However, this most recent one from Mashable includes startups from all over the UK, highlighting just how strong the startup ecosystem is.

We are chuffed to say it also includes two startups from Collider12; Seeker and Locomizer. To see what Mashable has to say about them and the other 23 startups included, click here.

Avocarrot's Acceleration to Silicon Valley

Avocarrot,  a platform which provides real rewards on mobile apps, has been picked out as one of the best startups in the world by accelerator BlackBox in Silicon Valley, who are partnered with Google Entrepreneurs. The team of four join seven other global startups who will all live in the BlackBox Mansion for the entire process, which runs from 15-26th July. The unique programme boasts a range of beneficial activities, networking events, and guest lectures, all aimed at helping the startups grow in an American environment.

“We're excited to have the chance to spend 2 weeks with the like-minded young entrepreneurs from all over the world,” says Conno Christou, one of Avocarrot’s co-founders. “It's also a great opportunity to tap into a large network of prestigious VCs and see how things are different in the US compared to the UK ecosystem.”

As BlackBox is focused on truly immersing the startups into the heart of this startup mecca, Conno realises the potential this trip could have for himself and his team. “We want to meet as many people as possible,” he explains, “to share ideas and get new insights in our sector. Making friends is in our nature, and all the other startups seem to be innovative companies. I’ll admit, the swimming pool in the villa was also an extra bonus!”

They applied only a month ago, and had to complete various forms, videos, and interviews via Google Hangout. But now they are through, Conno says that the four friends who all met at Imperial College are feeling "excited, honoured, and lucky." It's not all luck though, as the guys have been working tirelessly since 2012 to bring their technology to life, and been getting interest from investors and brands throughout the Collider12 process.

Stay tuned to the blog to see what they get up to later in July.

“Living life is fun and we’ve just begun…”

The Moment.Us family officially grew by three members this week, as they added Sarah Krug, Maksim Fedotov and Toni Barta to their team. They join co-founder Andrew Ko,  systems architect Mihai Ionescu, and Chief Technology Officer David Ko at their current HQ in TechHub Manchester.The three new members are from the University of Manchester, with Maksim and Toni being computer science students. Their job will be making sure the Moment.Us platform is smarter than everything else out there, so no pressure guys. Sarah is in the midst of her MBA degree, so she’s an expert at making sure the team have enough money in the bank to pay the bills, as everyone needs a working kettle. And in true Moment.Us style, the soundtrack to this post is “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge.