Singapore’s Sprooki Raises $483,000, Looks to Bring Location-Based Deals to Philippines Next

Singapore-based Sprooki is a location-based mobile commerce service that lets retail shops send targeted messages and promotions to potential customers who are passing by via their smartphones. The company is announcing today that it has raised SG$590,000 (about $483,000) in seed funding from incubator Get2Volume and the National Research Foundations’s Technology Incubator Scheme.

The service launched its first trials last year, and more recently it launched its software-as-a-service platform license business this year, allowing malls or retailers to use the platform to connect with customers. We got in touch with Sprooki’s founder/director Michael Gethen, who further explains:

We offer a marketing and technology solution that is 1) far more cost effective, quick and easy to deploy than building their own mobile system, and 2) allows them to have far more control and flexibility than using an external advertising service such as a group-buying website. The license fees are based on usage of the platform, so our success is aligned with the success of our customers.

So far Sprooki, which to date consists of a team of eight people, is doing well in Singapore, and they recently appointed a representative in Manila to explore business possibilities there. I’m told they have already partnered with Channel One Media there, so it will be interesting to see how things progress on that front. They are also in the early stages of looking to Australia as a market as well.

Sprooki has over 60 mall and retail partners in Singapore and around Asia to date. If you’d like to give their app a try, you can pick it up for free in Apple’s app store. Retailers can learn more about Sprooki here.