Mobeam Secures $6.2 Million in Series B Funding

 Capital Will Facilitate Strategic Expansion of Barcode Beaming Technology for Mobile Wallets, Mobile Payments, Digital Couponing and International Markets

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 27, 2015) - Mobeam[1], the unique global leader in mobile barcode beaming technology, today announced it has closed its final traunch of Series B funding to facilitate the large-scale rollout of its technology and speed the company's overall long-term growth. This last round raised an additional $6.2 million led by yet2Ventures[2], DFJ Athena[3] and other individual investors.

Mobeam will utilize the funding to help drive the expansion of its beaming technology for mobile wallets, mobile payments, digital couponing and barcode-based scanning applications in other industries. The company also has plans to speed its growth in multiple international markets.

Mobeam's patented light-based beaming technology overcomes historical technical barriers and enables point-of-sale (POS) laser scanners to read barcodes from smartphone screens. Popular and emerging "mobile payment" apps rely on NFC or other technologies that communicate with credit card payment terminals, but not with scanners. This limits these technologies largely to bank cards. Mobeam enables true mobile wallets and not just bank card payment substitutes, meaning payment apps can now carry barcoded loyalty cards, membership cards, gift cards, tickets, vouchers and digital coupons, which are readable by the scanners at all retail checkouts. Mobeam technology integrates with existing mobile payment apps, complementing their bank card capabilities and thus completing their role as a comprehensive mobile wallet. 

Mobeam currently operates with almost 300 million Samsung phones and has been used for almost 30 million POS transactions via Mobeam's Beep'nGo[4] app. The company plans to launch integrations with several major mobile wallet companies in the coming months and also is in talks with manufacturers to expand the technology to additional smartphone brands and models, as well as to additional chipset manufacturers.

"Mobeam has been on a steady growth track based on market desire for our technology as a way to deliver a complete mobile wallet," said Ben duPont, chairman of Mobeam's board of directors and co-founder of yet2Ventures. "This latest round of funding enables us to expand our offerings to include comprehensive production, roll-out and support at the enterprise scale and speed of today's retail," he said.

"Existing mobile payment wallets basically only replace bank-issued credit and debit cards with magnetic stripes, yet most shoppers also use gift cards, coupons, loyalty cards and other barcoded payment methods when they checkout," said Mobeam CEO George Garrick. "Mobeam allows these other payment methods to be used by beaming the barcode into the scanner, something not possible using the payment terminal. Shoppers can now leave their paper coupons and plastic gift cards at home. Mobeam also enables complete digital couponing, resulting in more precise targeting by brands, faster checkout, and faster coupon clearing. This additional operating capital will allow us to speed the company's growth, expand our partnerships, and explore other ideas and applications outside of retail, such as travel, transportation, manufacturing and health care."

Mr. Garrick added that Mobeam recently made its mobile beaming technology SDK available to developers, enabling them to explore these opportunities and create their own android-based applications and concepts utilizing barcodes or other applications of beaming.

About Mobeam
Mobeam is a global leader in mobile enabling technology. Mobeam technology allows laser scanners to read 1D barcodes from mobile devices, using patented technology that sends pulses of light or audio pulses to the sensor in scanners mimicking the black-and-white sequencing of standard barcodes. Mobeam is currently pre-loaded on almost 300 million mobile devices and enables retailers, CPGs and other companies to uniquely engage with consumers while increasing revenue opportunities. Mobeam was named a Red Herring Top 100 2015 award winner in the mobile industry segment. Additional information is available at www.mobeam.com[5] .

References

  1. ^ Mobeam (ctt.marketwire.com)
  2. ^ yet2Ventures (ctt.marketwire.com)
  3. ^ DFJ Athena (ctt.marketwire.com)
  4. ^ Beep'nGo (ctt.marketwire.com)
  5. ^ www.mobeam.com (ctt.marketwire.com

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