Tampa adtech firm lands six-figure investment

Tampa-based Nickelytics, the advertising tech firm initially known as The Nickel Ride, a ride-share company, has received a six-figure investment from venture capital group BDev Ventures. 

A member of Tampa Bay Wave, Nickelytics leverages out-of-home advertisements through vehicles including autonomous delivery robots, e-scooters and electric vehicle charging networks to help marketers reach customers, regardless of location.

The new investment from BDev, a venture capital investment firm launched by the founders of nearshore tech solutions company BairesDev, is significant as it invests in and accelerates business-to-business product and services companies by implementing the same lead generation engine that has transformed BairesDev into the largest bootstrapped and organically grown IT services company, according to a Wednesday news release. 

The funding received from California-based BDev Ventures comes after Nickelytics previously raised $1.5 million in capital from Techstars, angel investors and equity crowdfunding on Republic.

Judah Longgrear, CEO and co-founder. Image provided.

“We’ve been very focused on growing the brand with the advertisers and building revenue. During that period, BDev reached out with an interesting proposition,” said Judah Longgrear, co-founder and CEO of Nickelytics. 

He said BDev was looking at companies with high growth that would be a right fit for them, and the group initially reached out to Nickelytics late last year.  

Through a three-month pilot engagement with BDev, the group experienced a momentous amount of new businesses activity and deals through Nickelytics’ platform.

“We anticipate that the WinDifferent Growth Platform will significantly expand Nickelytics’ sales pipeline and translate into explosive revenue growth,” Matt Wilson, co-founder and managing partner of BDev Ventures, said in a statement. “We are very excited to work with Judah, Shama (Keskar) and the entire team to greatly expand Nickelytics’ customer base as they scale the company.”

“It’s a mutual benefit, they make an equity growth investment, and it helps us with the performance-based component,” Longgrear said about closing the deal. “They can really bring value to Nickelytics and we can focus on the operational scale portion so it’s really a strategic investment where they are not just putting in the capital, they are putting their metric model in how they grew their business.” 

In the meantime, Nickelytics is in the process of rolling out digital products and has launched a new campaign through Republic. 

“We had success last year with a Repubic campaign. It’s a unique way of raising capital while creating a close-knit community of supporter. We’ve raised close to $400,000 on Republic at a $6.5 million valuation. We got a lot of strategic partners out of it in the past and had a lot of requests to reinvest,” Longgear said, describing how it coincided with the timing of BDev’s investment. 

The current valuation is $10 million. 

Additionally, Longgear said Nickelytics is now endorsed by The Angels and Entrepreneurs Network, which is backed by serial entrepreneurs such as marketing giant Neil Patel and Shark Tank’s Daymond John.