Tile[1] — the company that makes popular small square-shaped tags and other technology to help people keep track of physical belongings like keys and bags — has made more recent[2] moves to link up with chipmakers, helping it expand to wireless headsets and other electronic and other connected items as part of a wider smart home strategy. Now, Tile is announcing a round of funding of $45 million to double down on those strategies and fulfil a plan to have its technology in millions of devices by the end of this year.
The growth equity is being led by Francisco Partners, [3] with participation from previous investors GGV Capital [4] and Bessemer Venture Partners [5] and new backers Bryant Stibel and SVB Financial Group.
CJ Prober — who joined as CEO last year[6] in part to develop Tile’s newer areas of business — said in an interview that the funding will help the startup be more aggressive in doubling down on these new opportunities.
“We’re seeing great business momentum, with the first embedded partner products from our strategic initiatives coming out this year,” he said. It now has partnerships with five semiconductor companies, including Qualcomm [7] and most recently Nordic, which they integrate Tile [8] functionality on to their hardware, he added. “All this is now paying off with great momentum.”
Prober would not comment on the company’s valuation with this round except to say that it was definitely an up-round. A spokesperson described the Series C having as “opened” with this $45 million commitment, which implies that there may be more funding coming, but Tile [9] has declined to specify...