Irish startup Pointy has caught the eye of notable angel investors in Series A funding — to the tune of $6 million. A handy mix of hardware and software created by Mark Cummins and Charles Bibby is already helping local retailers establish an online presence to boost their brick-and-mortar traffic and sales. With backing from founders of high-profile tech companies including WordPress, Google Maps, Transferwise, and Bebo, Pointy is positioning itself to be the go-to gadget for retailers across the U.S., as Pointy store pages continue to appear in search results “tens of millions of times.”
Cummins explains that Pointy is solving the problem of Amazon in a way that is effortless for retailers. The Pointy device connects to a store’s barcode scanner and scans the items on a Pointy-powered website for the store, which is optimized for search engines to appear before Amazon offered products, for example. In addition, the Pointy software platform includes algorithms to incorporate inventory, measuring frequency of items purchased and planning accordingly for upcoming transactions.