Kitchener-based Mappedin, whose software helps people find things in malls or stores, has raised an extension to its seed-stage financing, bringing its total funding to $3.5 million.
Green Century Investments led the round, with participation by Amolino and several local angel investors.
The company, whose revenues rose 500 percent in 2015, also announced two significant hires in its sales and marketing teams: Greg Barber has joined as Vice President of Sales and Suzanne Farb has joined as interim Vice President of Marketing.
MappedIn provides customizable interactive maps for retailers that are seeking to make navigation easier for their shoppers. The company said in a statement that the new funding will help it to meet demand from retailers, REITs and mall owners.
“We’ve always believed in the value of search indoors and the underlying need for better data management tools to digitize dynamic spaces,” said CEO and Co-Founder Hongwei Liu in the statement. “Last year’s market demand was truly eye-opening for us. We learned that premium malls and retailers are actively seeking a solution that can help them bring the discoverability inherent online to the in-store experience, and that they recognize the only way to do that is through great digital infrastructure and wayfinding experiences.”
Founded in 2011, Mappedin is forecasting a tripling of revenue by the end of 2016.
Barber joins Mappedin after a 23-year career at Microsoft, most recently serving as Vice President of the Consumer Channels Group at Microsoft Canada. A member of the executive team at Microsoft Canada for more than a decade, Barber was accountable for more than 30 percent of the region’s revenue.
Before joining Mappedin, Farb was the Head Merchant of Electronics and Entertainment for Target Canada. She launched Target’s entertainment and electronic departments in more than 133 stores nationwide. Before her tenure at Target, she worked at Microsoft Canada, where she helped re-establish the Windows consumer brand by developing integrated marketing strategies.
“With Greg and Suzanne on board, this funding allows us to accelerate our go-to-market strategy while continuing to invest in our product platform,” said Liu. “We set ambitious growth and product development goals each year and 2016 is no different.”
The company simultaneously was launched four-and-a-half years ago when Liu, Mitchell Butler and Leander Lee, all students at the University of Waterloo, showed their then side-project to the general manager of a local mall. She immediately put in an order to purchase a system for use during the Christmas rush, mere weeks away.
MappedIn was founded out of the University of Waterloo’s Velocity incubator, and has also been supported by various Communitech initiatives.
