Swarm Mobile is a venture-backed technology company that treats smartphones as offline cookies to give brick-and-mortar retailers the data, personalization, and marketing techniques common in e-commerce. Founded in early 2012 by digital marketing and ecommerce veterans, it works with both Fortune 500 companies and single-location stores. The company positions its technology as enabling shopper analytics and omni-channel marketing and says it has quickly become a de-facto standard for those services. Swarm is headquartered in San Francisco and maintains offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Australia. The company recently completed its first fundraising, securing approximately $3.5 million led by Icon Ventures. Swarm provides retailers with free in-store WiFi that opens a special mobile website where shoppers can browse products, find coupons, and earn loyalty points. The service captures customer behavior — including websites visited and in-store location — enabling retailers to send personalized deals and rewards. Its browser-based approach reduces friction compared with apps; early tests showed 30% of in-store traffic opts into Swarm and 65% of those reconnect later. The founders have been rolling the service out slowly to work out kinks. Swarm plans to be in 1,000 stores by the end of the year. Financially, the company has closed a $1M seed and is preparing to raise a larger Series A.

Total raised

$5M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Dec 2013