The Geolocation War Chests

On this blog, we’ve done a number of side by side product comparisons of the geolocation startups, as well as speed trials.  One thing we haven’t touched on yet is the relative funding of each of the companies.

There are plenty of examples of tech companies that have raised huge amounts of money and failed.  And there are also examples of companies who have been able to scale and win their category with minimal or zero funding.

But all things being equal, cash = oxygen for most startups, including the geolocation space.

Let’s take a look at the geolocation category from the perspective of funding.

(this is a little tough to read, but if you click on it, it gets better)

Here are a couple of things that stand out:

Foursquare, the darling of the space, has announced a relatively paltry amount of funding.  Have they raised more money than they are letting on?  Is their revenue larger than expected?   Filings would almost certainly have spilled the beans on any stealth funding.  If I were a betting man, I would expect to hear a major announcement here soon.

Whrrl (Pelago), Where (profitable), and MyTown have EXTREMELY deep pockets.  Expect to see a lot of activity out of these companies.

Finally, I’ve heard whispers of unannounced funding from at least one other company on this list.