According to a press release sent to BostInno this afternoon, Boston based Goby has raised an additional $2.5 million in funding, from investors including Flybridge Capital and Kepha Partners. This latest cash injection brings their total capital raised to over $7.5 million.
Goby, which we wrote about in February, is an adventure or activity search engine. On the homepage there are three search boxes: “What would you like to do?” followed by “Where?” and “When?” Goby takes your input and present you with the options related to your query. However, instead of sifting through millions of records with typical search engines, Goby strives to gives you exactly what you are looking for.
For example, when searching “biking in Boston” Google retrieves 1,460,000 records, most of which are articles having the key terms “boston” and “biking” in them. Executing the same search on Goby returns 137 bike paths and trails, and for advanced bikers, 69 mountain bike trails.
“We founded goby with the goal of helping people find engaging, distinctive activities, events and things to do,” said Mark Watkins, CEO and co-founder of goby. “This additional funding will help us integrate and advance goby.com and our portfolio of mobile apps, combining the web and mobile experience and enabling local discovery of your next adventure.”
The site has seen tremendous growth this year – shooting from 50,000 uniques in January to a high of 500,000 in July. The new capital will reportedly be used for product development, sales, and marketing. “Brands are looking for ways to connect to consumers with strong intent in a location-based manner, and goby provides a perfect platform for connecting to targeted audiences as they’re making their decisions.” said Watkins.
“We’ve recently done a lot of work on mobile, and are really looking to tie all of these things together, building a system that will help you make decisions and not just broadcast them. Fully integrating the web with the mobile experience,” said Watkins on a call with BostInno.
“We are also really excited to be building another consumer brand here in Boston, and there is plenty of room for more people to expand in the area, ” replied Watkins over the phone.
This is great news for the Boston community and sure puts recent post’s such as Mass High Tech’s to the question. It certainly shows that there is plenty of money in Boston for consumer sites with a great market opportunity and traction.
Goby has also launched apps for iPhones, iPad, and Android. So next time you’re aimlessly searching the internet for things to do over the weekend, check out Goby for some real answers.
