You may be thinking that with competitors like Foursquare, Gowalla and even Facebook (with its Facebook Places), the market is too crowded for location-based check-in services. You would be wrong or at least that’s what folks from European early stage venture firm Balderton Capital are thinking as they led a new round in SCVNGR’s funding. In total, the company has raised $15 million in a Series C round, which also saw original investors Highland Capital Partners and Google Ventures participating.
As part of the deal, Balderton Capital partner Barry Maloney is joining SCVNGR’s board to help the team build a foundation for international expansion. In addition, SCVNGR will also use the money to build mobile clients for additional platforms and ramp up R&D efforts around game mechanics.
Unlike most of its competitors, SCVNGR has a solid business model in place with “revenue through the roof,” according to the CEO and founder Seth Priebatsch. The company has upward of 1,000 paying partners and they’ve recently closed its biggest deal to date.
SCVNGR expects to reach 1 million members early this year.
[Via: mashable]