Alberto D'Ottavi
Italian startups goes international and grow fast - very fast, indeed. Beintoo, a loyalty and monetization platform for mobile apps, has reached more than 100 millions of mobile devices in less than a year, and now is announcing a $5 million Series A funding led by Italian VC firm Innogest Capital.
After winning the Startup Competition at LeWeb 2011 (press release, and more about LeWeb 2011 in this other Forbes article), this Italian company founded in 2010 opened an office in Silicon Valley and rapidly gained the interest of developers and investors. Their basic idea is to create a cross-application mobile loyalty system in order to offer to users, especially gamers, real rewards for their advancement in using the app: kinda a "Gamification-badges-meet-Groupon-offers". A great value for developers, that can focus on building the application while offering their users a monetization opportunity. A "Pay-per-engagement model", as described by Antonio Tomarchio, Beintoo' CEO and co-founder.
"Results speak for themselves" says Claudio Giuliano, Managing Partner of Innogest, the fund who led the investment, in the official press release. "Beintoo has a unique proposition for app developers and retailers? Add this to the quality of Beintoo's special offers and you will obtain a company that stands out in the mobile monetization ecosystem". Tomarchio adds: "Retailers can use the loyalty users have for their favorite apps to attract them to their deals, offers, and products, creating a true personalized experience. We find that transforming time spent in an app to real benefits results in high conversion rates and very happy users".
The company plans to expand operations in North America and Asia.
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