Melbourne-headquartered ISV startup secures $US5.5 million in Series A funding round

Bluedot Innovation, a location services ISV founded in Melbourne, is set to receive a significant boost to both its global and local operations as it has secured US$5.5 million in Series A funding.

Urban toll road management and development company Transurban led the round of funding, with an investment of US$4 million.

In addition to Transurban, Bluedot has attracted a range of new and existing investors to participate in the round, including Jeff Katz, formerly of Mercury Payments, as well as their long-standing board member, David Jacques, the founding CFO of PayPal.

Bluedot says the new investment will allow them to double the headcount at their San Francisco and Melbourne corporate offices and foster further business growth.

To date, Bluedot has raised US$13 million in total funding.

Bluedot co-founder, Emil Davityan says the investment will give them an increased capacity to innovate with their solutions portfolio.

"We have, and will continue to deliver, unprecedented IP and technology that enables enterprises to interact with their customers in meaningful and personalized ways at scale.," Davityan says.

"The solutions we can power were not possible before. We're enabling enterprises to put customer experience at the centre of their business, and to seamlessly transition between physical and digital." Bluedot provides a platform designed to enable enterprises to connect with their customers through relevant and personalised interactions based on the location and context of the customer.

The startup currently has a customer base that includes Salesforce, News Corp and Cox Automotive.

In November 2017, Bluedot and Transurban teamed up to create LinktGO, a mobile tolling app that leverages a smartphone's GPS and other sensors to identify when a driver has entered and exited a toll road.

After building a successful working relationship with Bluedot, Transurban became the lead investor to assist in the technology company's expansion.

Transurban general manager of customer Experience Chris Jackson says, "Partnering with Bluedot has enabled the delivery of our innovative smartphone app, which is helping our customers easily manage their use of our roads while building in safeguards to promote road safety.

"Our strategic investment in Bluedot ensures we're well placed to use location services technology to deliver new products for our customers that makes travelling with us a seamless experience.