Topguest has announced a funding round of $2 million in its Series A round, with some high profile investors. Peter Thiel, a famous Facebook invester as an advisor and founder, along with angels Ron Conway, Keith Rabois, Jeff Clavier and Naval Ravikant, participated in the round.
As another player in the very crowded market, Topguest says that what differentiates them from other competitors is ‘that it links into geo-location services already in use, instead of requiring another different check-in and offers points in already existing loyalty programs.’
Topguest offers location-based services offering deals, travel and hospitality loyalty programs that are available through your smartphone. It also features an option allowing you to synchronize services like Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook Places and Gowalla in order to increase benefits. One good example of benefits is the Frequent Flyer points users can get in exchange for their check-ins from airline company Virgin America. The check-in can be done using Topguest’s feature of linking their hospitability rewards accounts to tie check-ins to points and loyalty programs.
Similar location-based services, such as Facebook’s Places and Deals, recently launched, offer local shops and businesses to extend perks and discounts to their customers via Facebook. Facebook users will be able to find the nearest good deals only by clicking one button.
The market of location-based services is expected to grow rapidly in the next years due to the blossoming use of smartphone and mobile apps.
