PredictSpring, a startup that helps brands and retailers build mobile apps, announced today that it has raised $11.4 million in Series A funding.
Founder and CEO Nitin Mangtani has said that one of his goals is to help businesses create truly native mobile experiences that make it easy for consumers to shop. Customers include Calvin Klein, Cole Haan and Nine West, and the company says it’s delivering an average of 200 to 300 percent improvement on conversions.
“For the loyal customers who are repeat purchasers and high spenders, an app definitely provides them that very rich and first-class experience that mobile web doesn’t provide,” Mangtani told me yesterday when I asked whether users are actually downloading these apps. “And there are a couple other things happening — both Google and Apple trying to make discovery of apps much more seamless… We also see social media really helping us.”
In addition to offering an app development platform, the company has become increasingly focused on using mobile technology to improve the in-store experience. Those improvements are on the consumer side, with things like geofenced notifications and barcode scanning, but also take the form of apps that salespeople can use to look up more information about customers and products while in the store.
The new funding was led by Felicis Ventures. PredictSpring previously raised $2 million in seed funding, and existing investors Beanstalk Ventures and Novel TMT Ventures participated in the round, as did new investors Benvolio Group. Felicis Managing Partner Aydin Senkut (like Mangtani, a former Googler) and Beanstalk Managing Partner Ken Seiff have joined PredictSpring’s board of directors.