US-based social advertising platform Local Response has acquired the US-based television-themed social networking check-in Philo Media. The sum was undisclosed but was reported by financial website TechCrunch as being transacted using stock, not cash.
According to TechCrunch, Local Response received $1.5m in funding in December last year from Verizon Ventures, the corporate venturing division of the US-based telecommunications company, as well as venture capital (VC) firms Charles River Ventures and Metamorphic Ventures.
The investment was secured under Local Response’s former name of Buzzd. The company rebranded as Local Response and reprioritised towards a more explicit advertising-based model in April of this year.
Further investment was secured in a series A round which raised $3.2m in October 2008, and which attracted corporate venturing units Blackberry Partners Fund and Qualcomm Ventures, who joined VC firms Monitor Ventures and Greycroft Partners, the two firms to provide seed funding to Buzzd earlier in the year.
Launched as a primarily television-based variant on FourSquare’s check-in application, Philo has gradually moved toward an advertising based model allowing film and TV studios to track users’ tweets and target them with promotions or advertising. Local Response uses a similar model with local businesses.
Philo raised an undisclosed amount of series A-extension funding in July last year from venture capital firms North Bridge Venture Partners, DFJ Gotham, ENIAC Ventures and angel investor Stephen Lambert. As part of the deal Philo’s chief technology officer, Jessica Lowe, will take up the same role at Local Response.