Our guess is there’s a whole lot of ‘Booyah!’ heard in the vicinity of Tapit Media’s Sydney offices right about now.
The start-up, which specialises in new Near Field Communication (NFC), recently closed its seed funding round a diddy 22 days after pitching to Sydney Angels.
So what is it about Tapit that makes investors part with their moola at breakneck speed?
Simply put, Tapit is all about NFC marketing including mobile commerce, coupon distribution, surveys, reviews, ticketing, and competitions. You tap your phone on one of the company’s NFC tags and, voila, cool content in your grubby little mitts.
Since Tapit’s March 2011 launch it has run successful campaigns for big names including JCDecaux, Nova Network, Channel 10 and Sydney’s Queen Victora Building retail centre.
Tapit CEO Jamie Conyngham said: “Everyone we meet loves the idea of Tapit. It’s addictive.”
Tapit is the tenth company Sydney Angels has invested in since setting up shop in 2008 – and the quickest to be fully subscribed to.
Andrew Stead, cofounder of Sydney Angels, said: “The speed was testament to the opportunity and fit between the business and the investors.”
Sydney Angels investor David Cunningham said of Tapit: “After nine…months of seeking my next business venture in Sydney, Tapit Media stood out as an opportunity I just could not miss – in a sector that defines innovation and growth.”
NFC is also getting the big-name mobile players steamy under their button-down collars – with Nokia, Apple et al tripping over themselves to add technology-enabling chips to their handsets. It’s seen by many as the great white hope to finally take mobile payments mainstream.
Back in December 2010 Google went as far as to describe the addition of NFC technology to the Samsung-built Nexus S Android as “game changing”.
Google’s Eric Chu, Mobile Platforms Program Manager, said at the time: “The introduction of NFC in Android provides developers, service providers, and device manufacturers a game-changing opportunity to deliver new services while enabling users to interact with each other and the physical world in ways previously not possible.”
Let’s see what all the fuss is about, shall we?
