Tile Secures $45 Million to Advance Embedded Partnerships, International Growth, Product and Service Expansions
July 24 2019 - 7:00AM
Tile, the world’s leading smart location company, today announced
the closing of its Series C fundraising round, with a minority
growth investment led by Francisco Partners, a global
technology-focused private equity firm. The investment will
accelerate plans to expand Tile’s embedded partnerships whereby
third party products become findable just like Tile’s popular first
party devices. The investment will also allow Tile to grow more
aggressively internationally, expand into new product categories,
and enhance its Premium service to deliver more peace of mind to
its growing community of users.
The announcement comes as Tile posts strong results in early
2019, including growing sell-through in Europe by 160% in the most
recent quarter, as well as more than doubling unit sales on Prime
Day in the United States. The Company also reports that sign-ups
for its Premium service, launched in October 2018, have
significantly exceeded initial expectations and will be a key focus
going forward.
Tile has grown substantially in recent years as customers
increasingly rely on the technology to do more than find lost keys:
users now depend on the popular service to remind them if they’ve
left for work without their laptop, locate lost luggage, find the
family cat hiding in the backyard, and even to keep track of the
jacket a child may frequently leave behind. The Company’s growth
coincides with a time when daily life is becoming more hectic,
leaving the average person spending nearly a year of their lifetime
looking for misplaced items.
“Millions of users already trust us to safeguard their
belongings and find misplaced items -- we will continue to deliver
on that promise and more,” said CJ Prober, CEO of Tile. “This
investment ushers in a new chapter for Tile: with new products and
expanded partnerships, we can better solve the everyday pain point
of losing or misplacing the things that matter most to our global
customer base.”
This investment comes as Tile reaches a tipping point with its
embedded strategy which began with product partners like Bose,
Skullcandy and Sennheiser, and continues to grow with semiconductor
partners like Qualcomm, Nordic and Dialog, resulting in millions of
Tile-enabled third party devices in several new verticals by the
end of this year.
“Tile pioneered the smart location category,” said Andrew Kowal,
Partner with Francisco Partners. “With Bluetooth technology
projected to be included in nearly 30 billion devices shipping in
the next five years, Tile is poised to deliver an embedded finding
solution for a rapidly expanding market. We are extremely excited
to be partnering with Tile as the company enters the next chapter
of its growth story.”
Tile also raised a portion of the Series C investment from
existing investors GGV Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners, as
well as new investors Bryant Stibel and SVB Financial Group.
About TileTile gives everything the power of
smart location. Leveraging its vast community that spans 230
countries and territories, Tile’s cloud-based finding platform
helps people find the things that matter to them most. The global
Tile community helps locate more than five million unique items
every day. The company is based in San Mateo, CA and is backed by
Francisco Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and GGV Capital. For
more information, please visit Tile.com.
About Francisco PartnersFrancisco Partners is a
leading global private equity firm that specializes in investments
in technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch
over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has raised over $14 billion
in committed capital and invested in more than 275 technology
companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding
investors in the technology industry. The firm invests in
opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational
expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more
information on Francisco Partners, please visit:
www.franciscopartners.com.
About Bryant StibelBryant Stibel was founded in
2013 to provide strategic, financial, and operational support to
businesses with a focus across technology, media, and data. The
Bryant Stibel platform is unique in that it combines the creative
vision of Kobe Bryant, one of the world’s most well known and
respected sports icons, with Jeff Stibel, a proven market-driven
operator and serial entrepreneur, alongside a team of proven public
and private company executives. The team has extensive experience
operating technology and data-driven businesses, as well as
deploying capital through its growth and venture platforms. For
more information, please visit www.BryantStibel.com.
About SVB Financial GroupFor more than 35
years, SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB) and its subsidiaries have
helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas
forward, fast. SVB Financial Group’s businesses, including Silicon
Valley Bank, offer commercial, investment and private banking,
asset management, private wealth management, brokerage and
investment services and funds management services to companies in
the technology, life science and healthcare, private equity and
venture capital, and premium wine industries. Headquartered in
Santa Clara, California, SVB Financial Group operates in centers of
innovation around the world. Learn more at www.svb.com.
Media Contact Jennifer Velez on behalf of Tile,
tile@praytellagency.com John Moore on behalf of Francisco Partners,
john.moore@zenogroup.com
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