SCVNGR
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Founder(s) | Seth Priebatsch |
| Employees | 60 |
| Website | scvngr.com link now redirected to https://www.thelevelup.com/ |
| Type of site | Social Gaming |
| Registration | Required |
| Available in | English |
| Current status | Offline |
SCVNGR was a social location-based gaming platform for mobile phones. The SCVNGR android app was silently pulled out of Google Play store some time in early 2012 and the website www.SCVNGR.com now redirects to https://www.thelevelup.com/. The application had both a consumer and enterprise component. Companies, educational institutions, and organizations could build challenges, the core unit of their game, at places on SCVNGR from the web. The service also supports SMS.[1][2] SCVNGR is building a game "layer" on top of the world.
By going places and doing challenges, players can earn points. They are also able to broadcast where they are and what they're up to their friends on Facebook and Twitter. By doing challenges, players can unlock badges and real-world rewards, such as discounts or free items.
As of June 2010, over 1000 companies, educational institutions, and organizations have built on SCVNGR by creating challenges (and often rewards) at their locations.[3]
In February 2011, it was speculated that SCVNGR had reached over 1 million users.[4]
In March 2011, SCVNGR launched LevelUp, a mobile payments platform to increase engagement and loyalty at local businesses.
Examples of SCVNGR use in Education
SCVNGR is mostly utilized as a tool for orientation for prospective and new students to college campuses, but it has also been used for orientation to campus libraries. Rather than having a traditional tour guide approach to orientation, colleges have used the SCVNGR application to allow students to visit the places they need to know but through an active, collaborative group activity. It works as an icebreaker for meeting new people, and introduces the students to different locations by having them complete challenges at each location for rewards. The University of Louisville in Kentucky is one example of the use SCVNGR for orientation. An instructional video of their orientation can be seen at the SCVNGR for University website.[5]
As for SCVNGR use in library orientations, librarians from Boise State University and Oregon State University have created SCVNGR hunts and documented its use for library introductions for international students and bibliographic instruction.[6]
Funding
- In June 2008 the company raised a $35k Seed round with DreamIt Ventures.
- In August 2009 a $750k round was raised with Highland Capital Partners.
- In January 2010 a $4M Series B round was raised with Google Ventures,[7] Highland Capital Partners and DreamIT Ventures.
- In January 2011 an additional $15M round was raised with Google Ventures, Balderton Capital, and Highland Capital
- In June 2012 a $12M Series D round was raised with Google Ventures, Transmedia Capital, Highland Capital Partners, and Balderton Capital – and in August of the same year an additional $9M Series D round was raised with T-Venture.[8]
See also
References
- ↑ "2009 Finalists: America's Best Young Entrepreneurs: SCVNGR - BusinessWeek". Images.businessweek.com. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
- ↑ "Forbes.com Video Network | BreakOut!: Tech-Savvy Scavengers". Video.forbes.com. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
- ↑ "Clients". SCVNGR. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
- ↑ Zaki Usman (2011-02-23). "SCVNGR may have 1 Million users". shoutEx.com. Retrieved 2011-02-24.
- ↑ "SCVNGR for Universities". SCVNGR. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
- ↑ Amy E. Vecchione and Margaret Mellinger (February 2011). "Beyond Foursquare: Library Treks with SCVNGR". HandHeld Librarian IV. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
- ↑ Jason Kincaid Dec 24, 2009 (2009-12-24). "SCVNGR Raises $4 Million From Google Ventures". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
- ↑ "SCVNGR on Crunchbase".