Cloud4Wi Secures $4M From United Ventures To Expand WiFi Marketing Tool

Companies like FON and Boingo have made hay the last few years with Wi-Fi marketplaces. Now an Italian startup wants in on the act. Cloud4Wi plans to expand internationally (starting with a new San Francisco office) following investment by United Ventures, Italy’s largest technology-focused Venture Capitalist firm, to the tune of a $4 million Series A funding round.

Cloud4Wi’s cloud platform lets venues make money out of WiFi by allowing them to promote special offers to customers via a branded splash web portal, and integrating other marketing tools, including capturing customer data. The smart bit is that the platform allows third party developers to build other apps. The company has made some decent headway in the Italian market, working with telco players, system integrators and vendors.

Andrea Calcagno, CEO of Cloud4Wi, says they plan to take advantage of the growth of hotspots particularly in stadiums and shopping malls being the main generators of growth.

Its other competitors include Cloudessa and Purple WiFi.