CED Tech Venture profile: Reveal Mobile, turning location data into dollars

If you have yet to hear about Bluetooth beacons – there are millions just about everywhere – and their potential to deliver more business (think “location, location, location”), then check out what’s happening at Raleigh startup Reveal Mobile.

Reveal Mobile works with customers such as app developers to turn location data from wireless device users into higher rates of mobile ad responses – and more revenue.

“By providing accurate location data and much more accurate location-based audiences, we level the playing field for app publishers everywhere,” says Matthew Davis, vice president of marketing for Reveal.

Reveal will showcase its wireless beacon technology at CED Tech Venture.

This profile is the latest in a series of Q&As that are part of a partnership between the CED and WRAL TechWire.

(Note: Capitol Broadcasting Company, the corporate parent of WTW, is an investor in Reveal Mobile.

The Q&A:

What is the focus of your business?

The mission: create the world’s most accurate location data.

We help companies with mobile apps make better use of the location data coming out of their apps.

First, we turn this location data into audience segments that advertisers seek out – demographics, behaviors, and interests. Our customers sell these higher performing segments to their advertisers for higher rates. It’s not uncommon for the ad performance to increase over 400% with revenue increasing over 100%.

Second, we provide app publishers like Photofy with accurate location data to ensure their geographically targeted content, artwork, or photo filters serve in the correct real-world locations.

What is the top pain point/business application you are seeking to address?

Making money is mobile is extremely difficult. The “cookie”, which powers traditional digital advertising, doesn’t work in mobile apps. Therefore all of the audience targeting that advertisers have come to expect in digital isn’t readily available in mobile. This plays a big role in why advertisers haven’t yet fully embraced mobile advertising.

Many experts hail location as the next cookie, but using lat/long coordinates from a phone is only accurate to within 100 meters around 32% of the time. This means that audiences built from lat/long data alone will be so inaccurate 68% of the time that they’re worthless. Garbage in, garbage out.

Compounding the issue is that Facebook, Google, and Twitter built sophisticated audience targeting tools, and now command over 60% of all mobile ad spend. If you’re trying to sell advertising in your apps without audience data, you’re bringing a knife to a gunfight. By providing accurate location data and much more accurate location-based audiences, we level the playing field for app publishers everywhere.

What makes it unique?

Bluetooth beacons. These things are hot right now. Retailers are deploying them by the tens of thousands across the US. These little gadgets do one thing only; they broadcast a Bluetooth signal. But if you have an app that can detect them, you can do interesting things. Retailers want to send you a message when you’re near or inside their store when you encounter one of their beacons.

We don’t do that at all. We don’t install beacons or manufacture them. We only listen for their signal. Our secret sauce is being able to detect a beacon, figure out where it is on a map, then apply business info on top of that beacon. Now anytime we see a smartphone “bumping” that beacon, we build very accurate audience segments.

What’s truly amazing is that there are already over 6M beacons deployed today, with ABI Researching estimating that to be 400M in five more years.

Why should investors be interested in your firm?

Great product, great team, great market opportunity. We officially launched in October 2015 and in less than 1 year have over 400 apps using our technology. The product resonates with the market. The leadership here runs deep with ad tech, mobile product, and business development experience.

Finally, let’s draw a parallel to think about the market opportunity. The companies that figured out targeting on desktop websites did extremely well for their investors. Oracle bought Blue Kai for $350M, Acxiom bought LiveRamp for $310M, and Nielsen bought Exelate for $200M. Beacons are rapidly evolving to becoming the next standard in location targeting.

We’ve unlocked their potential for audience data, and have a two-year head start on the competition. As long as we continue building a great product and gaining traction, we’ll be a strong complement for many companies industries across ad tech, data management, and publishing.

Business facts: