06.22.20
Reveal Mobile nets a Carolina Angel Network investment based on the company’s location-based marketing and analytics platform that helps businesses understand and increase customer foot traffic
Promising UNC-affiliated companies that need funding find support from the Carolina Angel Network, the only official angel investor network for startups and ventures associated with the University.
A Raleigh-based startup is helping the owners of a growing number of retailers and small businesses increase foot traffic by creating better customer experiences – while allowing them to spend marketing dollars in a smarter way. It’s made possible through a novel location-based marketing and analytics platform provided by Reveal Mobile, which recently attracted the attention and financial investment of the Carolina Angel Network.
Reveal Mobile’s technology is a mobile data location platform that analyzes GPS data from cell phones. It provides location-based marketing, analytics and foot traffic attribution to agencies, brands and data-driven companies that want to expand their target audiences.
“Through our platform, we can take location data – basic longitude and latitude coordinates – and utilize our proprietary point-or-interest database to translate that information, which allows us to pinpoint devices,” says Brian Handly, CEO of Reveal Mobile. “From Starbucks to Target or even an auto dealership, we help our clients analyze foot traffic patterns to their stores and, in turn, they can use that data to accurately build their audiences.”
To offer a better experience for customers, many retail and brand companies also need insight into how to best find and grow their target audience through digital media. But many don’t know how to reach target audiences across mobile, social media and digital advertising as a whole.
Reveal Mobile takes that challenge and applies its expertise in location-based marketing and analytics to serve its customers, including media companies, app publishers, advertisers, agencies and data partners. By providing its customers with this audience intelligence, Reveal Mobile ultimately helps its customers reinvent how they work.
“If a business owner wants to target customers who came into their store over the past 90 days and they want to reach them on Facebook, we can help them do that,” says Handly. “We can take it a step further and also show if they did run a Facebook marketing campaign, did that campaign actually result in foot traffic to their store.
“You can’t be afraid to fail. As an entrepreneur, the biggest thing to get over is the fear of being on your own. I talk with people all the time who have the desire to be an entrepreneur, but they are afraid of failure,”
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Raleigh, the company has quickly grown and created its own niche in the digital marketing industry. With fewer than 30 employees, Reveal Mobile boasts clients including Capitol Broadcasting, Brand Equation, Performance Bicycle and a large consumer packaged goods (CPG) company.
As a serial entrepreneur, Handly has faced many challenges in building successful businesses. And building Reveal Mobile has been no different. The original concept for Reveal Mobile was born out of Capitol Broadcasting as a mobile app platform that only served the television broadcast space. Although the app was successful, it became apparent starting in 2013 that television station consolidation was going to have a profoundly negative impact on the broadcast business.
“Do you ride it to the bottom or do you figure out how to change the business fundamentally so you actually have a business for the future?” says Handly. “We completely overhauled. We stopped any development on that old product, and we used revenue from that product to launch a new product, which was Reveal Mobile. That was a big challenge – trying to come up with a new idea in a new industry.”
Since then, the company has quickly grown by helping its clients reach the right audience across mobile, social media and digital advertising as a whole. Like many other companies, Reveal Mobile had to revisit strategies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But a recent investment from the Carolina Angel Network is helping the company continue to grow.
“Brian Handly is a very experienced serial entrepreneur whose experience was a significant factor in our decision to invest,” says Randy Myer, managing director of the Carolina Angel Network. “He has won some significant accounts.”
Reveal Mobile board member David Jones, a UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus, introduced the company to the Carolina Angel Network (CAN), an investor program that boosts companies like Reveal Mobile by connecting accredited investors who are alumni or friends of UNC-Chapel Hill to UNC-affiliated startups. CAN is the only official angel investor network for startups and ventures associated with the University. And since being founded in November 2016 through April 2020, it’s attracted nearly 200 member investors who have invested $11.9 million in 19 companies, including Reveal Mobile.
As part of the CAN portfolio, Reveal Mobile receives support and guidance from experienced alumni who are members of the network, whether it be through networking, access to business contacts or board member advisors.
“That investment is helping me continue to accelerate despite the impact of COVID-19,” says Handly. “We’ve worked with many networks, and the CAN process was very easy. They do a great job.”
And with the economic uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic, securing investments are still a priority and lifeline for many small businesses.
“The funding from the Carolina Angel Network could not have been timed any better,” says Handly. “The funding prevents us from considering layoffs at this point, and it allows us to continue to build the business while we transition through.”
Even throughout the pandemic, Reveal Mobile has seen sales continue to grow. This summer, the company is set to expand into Europe, beginning with a launch in France. As an entrepreneur with experience across different industries, Handly encourages other innovators and entrepreneurs to take risks and not be afraid to fail, no matter what circumstances they find themselves in.
“You can’t be afraid to fail. As an entrepreneur, the biggest thing to get over is the fear of being on your own. I talk with people all the time who have the desire to be an entrepreneur, but they are afraid of failure,” says Handly. “And I have had more failures then I care to mention. But you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go try the next thing.”
For more information about Reveal Mobile, visit their website.
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