LocalResponse, a US-based social advertising service backed by phone operator Vodafone’s corporate venturing unit, has raised $1.2m from a consortium including Verizon Ventures.
LocalResponse said alongside phone company Verizon’s corporate venturing unit in the round were venture capital firms Advancit Capital, Cava Capital, Extreme Venture Partners and the Webb Investment Network.
LocalResponse has now raised $8m in aggregate since launch.
In October 2011, LocalResponse raised $5m in funding from investors including Vodafone Ventures.
Venture capital (VC) firm Cava Capital, investment firm Advancit Capital and Progress Ventures, the venture capital firm spun-out from investment bank Progress Partners, made up the rest of the syndicate of new investors backing LocalResponse.
The firms joined existing backers including Metamorphic Ventures, Extreme Venture Partners, FF Ventures and Acadia Woods Partners in the round. Metamorphic was among the investors in a $1.5m round in December 2010, as was corporate venturing unit Verizon Ventures.
Local Response was previously known as Buzzd before changing its name earlier in 2011, and works as an advertising service whereby users have access to targeted local offers based on their positioning when they check in on their mobile devices. Local Response plans to use the equity funding to increase its sales staff and make improvements to the enterprise version of its service.