Reactrix raises cash for interactive advertising in malls
Updated
Reactrix, a Redwood City company that beams interactive advertising onto the floors of malls and theaters, has raised a very large $45 million to allow it to expand and attract new advertisers.
In malls, Reactrix’s product beams light down on to a rectangle mat on the floor. This lets people kick virtual footballs or other objects around on it, among other things. Big brands, such as Coca-Cola, Dockers and Hilton can place their virtual products in the middle of the mat (see image at left).
The company says it has signed exclusive agreements with the nation’s six largest mall owners (known as REITs, for Real Estate Investment Trusts), which the company says gives it access to more than 80 percent of the malls in plum geographic areas. It has got 165 installations, and will be profitable this year, said Reactrix chief financial officer, Peter Bardwick. The company has now raised $68 million since 2001.
He said the large round would be the company’s final one.
Leading the financing were The D.E. Shaw Group and Menlo Ventures. Existing investors Mobius VC, Thomas Weisel Venture Partners and Worldview Technology participated.
One question we have about this: What happens when mall visitors get immune to this sort of thing and begin to glaze over? Will advertisers pay big bucks for this — enough so that this company can make a return on the large amount of cash now invested in it?
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
