Courtesy Rypplzz
Spatial technology startup Rypplzz (pronounced “ripples”) recently raised $3 million in seed funding as it aims to help fans navigate sporting events more easily and get more out of their in-venue experiences.
Founded in 2016, Rypplzz’s Interlife platform uses radio waves to turn any area into a grid of precise location points, allowing for more detailed tracking than GPS provides. This type of technology opens the door to new forms of location-based interactive activations, such as app-based promotions when a user enters a certain area.
CEO Josh Pendrick said sports represents an opportunity to expand and explain the tech, which one day could be used to power entire smart cities. “Our goal when we first started Rypplzz was basically to build this platform which we consider an operating system for the physical world,” Pendrick said in an interview.
Applications on top of that geolocation layer today span from augmented reality offerings to security monitoring. Wayfinding and food deliveries around stadiums could also be improved with more detailed location information. Similar tools could be leveraged to extrapolate fan movement data at a high level to improve signage and stadium design.
Rypplzz’s partners include Cisco Sports Media Group. KB Partners led the latest funding round, which brings the company’s total amount raised to $6.8 million.
“The lines between spectators and participants are blurring in sports, demanding a paradigm shift in how sports properties and brands connect with fans,” KB Partners founder Keith Bank said in a statement. “Rypplzz clearly sees this transformation taking shape, and it’s pioneering a future where fan engagement is seamlessly interwoven into the fabric of the sporting experience, both physical and digital.”
The company has 10 staffers, with plans to expand to as many as 15 in the short term.
“Entertainment and content consumption is a really key way of driving user behavior,” Pendrick said. “When you can introduce really powerful technology like this in a way that has the end consumers in mind … we think that really carries long term strategic value for where we’re wanting to go.”
