Gowalla Attracts $8.4 Million From Some High-Profile Investors

One of the hottest areas for mobile phones is location-based services, software that lets friends tell each other where they're at around town and offers games or ads related to those locations.

Austin-based Gowalla took a step toward the head of the pack of location-based service providers on Wednesday with an $8.4 million investment that featured some well-known backers. Greylock Partners led the financing round, which included investments from Kevin Rose (digg), Jason Calacanis (Mahalo) and Gary Vaynerchuk (Winelibrary TV).

Gowalla, which debuted at the South by Southwest conference in March, is a mobile social network where you can tell your friends where you're hanging out, but then adds an incentive for checking in at key locations. You can earn rewards at the places you visit, making it a game that entices members to announce their locations.

The 11-person company, founded in 2007, also created the card-trading Facebook application PackRat.

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By Jeff Beckham in Other on December 9, 2009 3:34 PM 0 Comments

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Neil Epstein

This app is much more successful in execution than four square, but it's lack of user base makes it not a primary app for me. I hope that changes.