BUMP.com acquires BumpChat to connect drivers

The social network based on license plates will soon let drivers chat with each other

BUMP.com, the social network for your car, announced Tuesday that it has acquired BumpChat, an iPhone and iPod Touch application that allows users within a specific radius to chat with one another.

Though originally intended to be a new kind of dating app for meeting people in your area, BumpChat will be relaunching in June to cater to the aspirations of BUMP, which wants to connect drivers who may not know each other. The app will also be ported to Android.

As you can see in the screenshot above, BUMPchat will enable users to fine-tune who they want to chat with. You can limit it to people a certain number of miles away from you or you can sort results by a specific make, model and year of car. There are also options to sort by gender and/or age, and even to send files.

“The acquisition is based on our vision of creating an open communications grid where BUMP.com users can pull into the parking lot of any mall in America and instantly receive specifically targeted coupons, discounts and benefits,” explains Mitch Thrower, BUMP founder and CEO. “These users will also have the ability to communicate and share with one another based on multiple criteria, such as mutual interests, current location and vehicle type.”

BUMPchat is BUMP’s fourth acquisition in just a few months’ time. Most recently, the company bought Plateside, another social community built around license plates, and Platester, a license plate-based messaging platform. Earlier, BUMP had acquired YourPlates.

The company is clearly dead set on owning any social-connected mobile experiences related to your license plate.

All those acquisitions cost capital, which BUMP recently locked up in the form of $2.2 million. Its most recent round, a $1.2 million Series B1, only closed a month ago, but the company is already in the process of raising more funds.