Street Fight Daily: Zenreach Emerges from Stealth with $50M, Uber Partners with DigitalGlobe

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…

WiFi Startup Zenreach Emerges from Stealth with $50 Million and Peter Thiel on its Board (Forbes)
Jack Abraham’s startup raised $50 million across three rounds of funding without a peep to the press. One-third of the city of San Francisco has logged into Abraham’s startup without ever realizing. Zenreach promises to solve a headache that merchants have complained about for years, telling them how many times a customer really returned in person to their store.

Uber is Partnering with a Satellite Imaging Company to Help Drivers Find You (The Verge)
Uber and satellite imaging company DigitalGlobe — which provides high-resolution aerial imagery to companies like Apple and Google — have agreed to a partnership that will give Uber the ability to use satellite images for its mapping ambitions.

Telemetrics CEO: A Phone Call to a Business is Really a ‘Data Call’ (Street Fight)
Andrew Osmak talks with us about how the company has been evolving under his leadership over the past six months, where he sees the white spaces in call and data analytics, and why a tracked phone number can be a more valuable data point than a form-fill on a website.

IBM’s Watson and Macy’s Team Up to Make In-Store Shopping Assistant (VentureBeat)
Macy’s shoppers across the United States will soon have a chance to shop with IBM’s Watson. Today, the two companies announced a pilot program for an in-store shopping assistant powered by Watson. The Macy’s On Call pilot program will take place in 10 department stores around the country.

5 Self-Serve Platforms for Location-Based Mobile Campaigns (Street Fight)
Although there’s still debate within the ad tech community over whether SMBs are best served by self-serve platforms, the demand is certainly there. With limited budgets and a strong desire to get the most bang for their buck, local business owners are searching for self-managed advertising and marketing solutions.

Do Retailers Need a ‘Homepage’ for Indoor Places? (GeoMarketing)
Indoor navigation software provider Mappedin’s “dynamic digital directory interface” is intended to make mall directories more flexible and reflective of what shoppers and businesses want at a given time. Rather than being a static map of “you are here,” Mappedin’s platform connects a mall’s directory to its branded app to direct consumers to where they should go depending on what’s happening at nearby retailers in the moment.

Loyalty Builders Touts 4 Steps to Higher ROI Marketing (Mobile Marketing Watch)
This week, the folks at Loyalty Builders shared four recommendations retailers can follow for a higher-ROI from data-driven marketing. According to the company, which aims to lift revenue through more relevant marketing at every stage of the customer’s lifecycle, here are the 4 steps in question…

Google Can Now Deliver Native Ads Programmatically (AdAge)
Advertisers can now buy native ads programmatically in DoubleClick Bid Manager, Google said Tuesday at its DoubleClick Leadership Summit. Publishers can also make their entire native ad inventory on the web and in apps available programmatically.

These Three Companies Have Made the Final Round of Yahoo Bidding (Bloomberg)
Verizon, Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert, and Vector Capital Management are the three favorites to acquire Yahoo, according to people familiar with the matter. All three submitted bids by Yahoo’s Monday deadline, along with AT&T and private equity suitor TPG. After reviewing Monday’s bids, Yahoo is expected to request best and final offers from two or three of the bidders.

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