stickybits is a New York-based startup that lets people attach digital content to real-world objects by linking content to barcodes. Users scan those barcodes with iPhone or Android apps to view all attached content. The company raised $1.6M in its first round of funding to support growth. New investors First Round Capital and Lower Case Capital joined existing backers Mitch Kapor and Polaris Venture Partners. Howard Morgan of First Round Capital will join the company’s board, and Gary Vaynerchuk and Yishan Wong have joined as advisors. The new capital is intended to grow the team, increase adoption and enable integration with more partners. Stickybits is a mobile app for iPhone and Android that lets users scan any barcode and attach a photo, video, audio, or text message to that physical object. Each barcode is programmable by the first person who scans it and subsequent scans show the prior messages, creating a stream tied to that object; each scan and message is geo-tagged. The app is free; the company sells packs of 20 vinyl barcode stickers for $10 and lets users download and print barcodes for free. Stickybits supports Facebook Connect and allows scans to be broadcast to Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare, including an option to check in on Foursquare by scanning. The company says a future business model could charge brands to claim their barcodes and place their own messages first. Financially, Stickybits closed a $300,000 seed round from Polaris Venture Partners and Mitch Kapor ahead of its official launch at SXSW in Austin.

Total raised

$2M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

May 2010