Location based discovery engine for smartphones grabs funding and partners with T-Mobile
Location based search is becoming like second nature for those of us with smartphones. These applications have the potential to deliver highly targeted advertising and that’s why investors are pouring cash into companies like Geodelic, which just raised $3.5 million from Clearstone Venture Partners and Shasta Ventures.
Santa Monica-based, Geodelic is working on what it describes as a “search-less search” application, similar to other Apps like Google Maps, where you can type in something and it will show you nearby results. Geodelic takes this a step further with a rich visual interface and aggragates additional information from partners like Yelp and Citysearch.
It seems the startup’s technology is so special that T-Mobile has decided to partner with Geodelic to develop an iPhone application called Sherpa, which will come pre-installed on the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. This app will run on the Android platform.
Founded in 2008, Geodelic’s technology is also said to include a “learning” feature, which basically recognizes the user’s favorite types of locations and preferences over time. The more the application gets used, the more it customizes itself. So for example, it says it can learn what kind of restaurants I like, etc. It has named this learning engine, GENIE, which stands for Geodelic ENgine for Interest Evaluation.
Geodelic is having a succesful ride so far. The company has grown from six to over twenty staff members in the last six months. It plans to launch on Android this summer, and by the looks of the screenshots I took from its website, Apple iPhone is on the way too.
