Pointy provides a hardware-and-cloud solution that connects to a store’s barcode scanner (the “Pointy box”) and automatically publishes scanned items to a Pointy-powered website optimized for search. The product is designed to make local store inventory discoverable in search engines and drive footfall to physical retailers. Pointy has partnerships with POS providers Lightspeed, Clover, and Square that let retailers use the platform without buying the $499 device, and it works with Google’s See What’s In Store program. The company reports 5,500 retailers using Pointy, about 70% of which are in the U.S., with the remainder in Canada, the U.K., and Ireland. Pointy says the new funding will be used to accelerate growth and build on increased uptake by U.S. retailers. Prior investors and angels include Draper Associates, Frontline Ventures, Matt Mullenweg, Lars Rasmussen, Taavet Hinrikus, and Michael Birch. Pointy combines a hardware device (the “Pointy box”) and a software platform to let local retailers automatically publish scanned inventory to store-specific websites. The Pointy box connects to a store’s barcode scanner and auto-adds items, while Pointy optimizes store pages for search so local product queries surface nearby retailers. The company has built algorithms to infer whether items remain in stock by measuring purchase frequency as a proxy for replenishment. Founders Mark Cummins and Charles Bibby are both PhDs in robotics; Cummins previously co-founded Plink, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Pointy reports devices in use across 48 U.S. states and store pages appearing in search results "tens of millions of times." Financially, the startup has raised a $6M Series A following a $1.2M seed round and is focused on driving more footfall to local stores with minimal overhead.

Total raised

$18M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Jul 2018