In the nascent world of mobile social networking, there are the big dogs (Facebook and MySpace) and everyone who wants to be a big dog. Two of the puppies just got bigger. Limbo is buying Brightkite, which all the tech kids are raving about, in a nearly all-stock transaction. It will change its name to Brightkite in a re-branding move, and gain Brightkite’s engineering team and product smarts. Limbo CEO Jonathon Linner will remain as CEO, while Brightkite founders Martin May and Brady Becker will take over product management and design.
Meanwhile, Limbo brings a lot of cash to the table, having just raised a previously undisclosed $9 million round of financing in January, 2009. Nexit Ventrures was the lead, and existing investors Azure Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and New Enterprise Associates also participated. Brightkite, meanwhile, started out as a TechStars startup and was funded with just $1 million in angel money. This marks the third exit from TechStars’s Class of 2007—the other two being SocialThing to AOL and IntenseDebate to Automattic.
The combined company will employ 35 people and boast two million active users. That should keep it in the running with other growing mobile social networks such as Loopt, which has more than one million active users, Mig33, which may have 10 million or more and MocoSpace, which has 3.5 million active users. The enlarged engineering team should help Limbo/Brightkite push out new features at a faster pace and keep up with the front pack.
Both Limbo and Brightkite have iPhone apps, and both use Facebook Connect to plug into people’s existing social network. Here is how we described the Brightkite app when it first came out:
The app allows users to syndicate their current location to their friends, meet nearby Brightkite users, and lifestream with the equivalent of geo-encoded Tweets. The application is tied to Yahoo’s Fire Eagle, which allows users to manage their location from a number of other services. The site also uses databases to automatically associate POI’s and cross streets with GPS locations, so user positions aren’t simply displayed as coordinates.
Meanwhile, Limbo is more centered around the activities of the people around you and connecting with them that way. We included Limbo in this roundup, where we concluded it could do a better job with locating the exact position of friends on a map. Brightkite’s Fire Eagle implementation should help with that.
Something tells me this is just the beginning of the consolidation in mobile social networking.
Congrats Martin and Brady! This is exciting and I’m sure it’ll be the buzz around Boulder. Go Brightkite!
Linner’s annoying “we love ya, gotta have ya” affected Schtick came to Chicago a while back, but the guys at Earthcomber just laughed and wished em good day.
Bright Kite the fat chick score at the end of a long, drunken evening.
Loopt’s gotta feel great about this, given the Sonsini kid now has two big bets on social networking, not just Loopt.
Sam I am: Get used to asking me if I want fries with that. Yikes.
Much ado about nothing.
Nothing says “Yawn” like a stock to stock transaction involving two social network sites that will be something entirely different two years from now.
However, side wager for anyone who thinks Loopt is knocking on doors, doing the same thing.
The thing is: unless you figure out how your cool gadget can actually GENERATE REVENUE, nobody really gives a flying fkuc.
Kodos to Carnval Barker Linner for figuring that out two years ago. It just took him this long to find a mark, errr company to acquire.
Sammy Hagar Altman has thousands of dudes with no shirts looking to meet on his site. But not much else.
“Step right up folks and see the geek bite the head off a chicken.” Business as usual for the geek. Not so much for the chicken…
But it feels better at the end of the day if you refer to this freak show as: “The Stock to Stock merger announcement.”
As a brightkite user and fanboy, I’m happy for Martin & Brady, congrats!
both of these apps are pretty disappointing. two third-tier companies join forces. ok.
I think this is a very smart move. Very good the decision of the Executives.
Kudos to Carnval Barker Jon-boy Linner for figuring that out two years ago. It just took him this long to find a mark, errr company to acquire.
But Jonny boy–clever as he is–needed the blessings of the Sleepy Sonsini Kid at NEA to get this deal done.
Somebody tell Sammy Altman that he might think he’s getting laid on Friday night, but he’s actually getting F’d on Saturday too.
Love Brightkite (although truth be told, I wouldn’t use if without Facebook Connect). This should be interesting to observe as location based social networking looks like it’ll become the hot new thing after Twitter’s moment in the sun this year.
Know from a trusted source that brightkite was running out of money and that this was a fire sell at pennies on the dollar.
Great news for us accustom to mobile business, sms and message relays within international markets.
This just goes to show that despite a credit crunch, recession and everything else that is currently happening there is still an investment appetite for the exceptional.
This news in heartening for everyone and goes to show that if you can deliver an great product, get the right people using it and they tell their buddies you have a chance.
Good look guys!
a domain name “limbo” is not a good place to call your social home. especially if your trying to get your life together. social sites and their functionality are a dime a dozen. weak domain name and you have no “social gravity.” ask friendfeed.
MyLocator.mobi – location is everything
Another money making opportunity for us.
most likely put together by investors
Looking forward for this awesome merger. Huge amount of money is involved.
Yea, I’m a big fan of Brightkite, I even wrote an Android app for it (currently off the market due to be re-written) and this is great news. I should really get my finger out and re-release the app!
I cant believe Limbo was able to get more money. Watch for a lot of press releases and a big mess coming soon.
Congratulations to Rob, Dave and Jonathan and the rest of the team in Burlingame and of course to Brightkite too! I look forward to seeing the fruits of your joint labours.
Wow! Limbo’s a lot of fun. It’s great to see them join forces with Brightkite. Mobile social networking is the New Frontier!
Folks, anytime two loss-making companies merge it was brokered like an arranged marriage. Not saying this is good or bad for investors, but you can be dang well sure that the acquired company would have preferred to remain independent.
this is spin.
Congrats to Brady and Martin, the whole Bkite team and Limbo!
I’m excited to see where this takes you.
good post and interesting development erick but dont forget MocoSpace – 6m registered and 2b pages a month all from word of mouth growth.
VC’s,
Please read the writing on the wall – TAKE YOUR MONEY and RUN. Stop the bleeding and wind this venture down There is no REAL business model for this company or Loopt.
It ok to admit it is a mistake
I met Jonathan LInner at a FL spring break two or three years ago. They get the whole lead gen game. One of the VCs in on the deal is the IRR dude from my post, “9 VCs you don’t wanna meet”.
I hope Jonathan, the limbo 41414 team, and the techstars port company hit it outta the park.
P.S. a related question: would text messaging to and from an 800# be of value to anyone beside me (and maybe Limbo)?
PPS I don’t see this as much social networking as it is a play on lead generation play based on p2p/zip code basis/tpdm (third party data matching)
Sam Altman. This is going to be a very unhappy Easter For you.
Sad face.
Also check out Centrl, they are on BB, iPhone + Android, around half a million users, pretty cool LBSN – http://centrl.com