Loopt

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Loopt, Inc.
Company type
Private
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FateAcquired by Green Dot Corporation
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HeadquartersMountain View, California, US
Key people
Sam Altman (CEO)
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Loopt, Inc. was an American company based in Mountain View, California, which provided a service for smartphone users to share their location selectively with other people. The company entered partnerships with major U.S. mobile phone carriers including Verizon Wireless and Sprint-Nextel to include Loopt on their handsets[2] and the service reached 4 million registered users in July 2010.[3] In addition to its core features, users also had the ability to integrate Loopt with other social networks, including Facebook and Twitter.[4]

The company was founded in 2005 and received initial funding from Y Combinator,[5] and completed Series A and B financing led by Sequoia Capital[6] and New Enterprise Associates.[7] The company's board members included TiVo-founder Mike Ramsay and Greg McAdoo of Sequoia Capital.[8] In March 2012 Loopt agreed to be acquired[9] by Green Dot Corporation for $43.4 million in cash, with $9.8 million of that to be set aside for employee retention.[10]

History

Initially called Radiate,[1] Loopt began with funding from Y Combinator. That summer, Stanford sophomores Sam Altman and Nick Sivo worked to build the first prototype of Loopt. They were later joined by Alok Deshpande as well as two of Sam's childhood friends, Rick & Tom Pernikoff.[5]

Loopt received US$5 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates and struck a deal to launch the service on Boost Mobile devices in September 2006. Boost Mobile featured Loopt in a series of commercials that are most known for the "Where you at?" tag line.[11]

In August 2007, Loopt expanded the service to select Sprint phones, and in June 2008, to Verizon. Loopt announced support for most GPS-enabled Blackberries on June 13, 2008.[12] Loopt received US$8.25 million in Series B funding in July 2007.

In February 2008, Loopt and CBS partnered to deliver location-based advertising.[13] Seven months later, Loopt released an opt-in feature in Loopt's iPhone application, called Loopt Mix, which uses location-based services to enable iPhone users to find and meet new people nearby.

At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2008, Altman presented the Loopt application for the iPhone. Loopt for the iPhone became available to US customers of the Apple iTunes App Store on July 11, 2008.

In the summer of 2008, Loopt sponsored Black20's The Middle Show with host Dave Price.

In October 2008, Loopt was sued by Earthcomber for patent infringement.[14] The case was dropped by Earthcomber in March 2009.[15]

In October 2009, Loopt acquired Y Combinator-backed startup GraffitiGeo for an undisclosed sum.[16]

In March 2010, Loopt launched an upgraded version of its iPhone app,[17] incorporating place and event information to its Pulse database, bringing in content from ZVents, Metromix, and SonicLiving. These are added to existing content partnerships with Citysearch, Zagat, and Bing.

In March 2010, Loopt launched a product called Loopt Pulse, exclusively designed for the iPad.[18]

In April 2010, Loopt launched an upgraded version of its BlackBerry app.[19] The upgraded version includes the same places and events upgrade formerly launched in March 2010 for iPhone users.

August 2010 saw Steve Boom taking over as president of the company.

In December 2010, Loopt launched Loopt version 4.0, which featured a completely updated design.

In March 2012, after raising more than $30 million in venture capital, Loopt announced it had agreed to be acquired by Green Dot Corporation for US$43.4 million in a deal that was most likely orchestrated as a marriage of convenience by joint investor Sequoia Capital, with its products to be shut down at an unspecified date.[20][9]

SMS invitation issues

Users of Loopt had to register their mobile phone number, full name, and date of birth. Loopt's privacy notice stated that users could control who receives geo-location information via privacy settings.

When Loopt released its native iPhone application on July 10, 2008, the software quickly gained notoriety for sending Short Message Service (SMS) invites to users' address books, seemingly without the user's knowledge; additionally, the SMS service failed to respond to the industry-required STOP message.[21]

On July 14, 2008, Loopt posted to its blog that the mass invites could be attributed to a confusing user interface, and they were working on an improved invitation flow.[22] Respect for STOP was announced July 15, 2008,[23] and on July 17, 2008, Loopt released an updated version which addressed the issues with the confusing user interface.[24]

See also

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gannes, Liz (2014-03-18). "Y Combinator's New Head Startup Whisperer Sam Altman Is Quite a Talker". Vox.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hendrickson, Mark (2008-03-28). "Loopt Embraced by Verizon; Starts to Spread Its Mobile Wings". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-02-23.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Siegler, M. G. (2010-07-09). "Loopt Hits 4 Million Users, Propelled By iOS 4 And Android". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-02-23.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Siegler, M. G. (2010-12-06). "Loopt 4.0: Redesigned, Facebook-Heavy, And Location-Based Texting". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-02-23.
  5. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Loopt: How it all began..." Archived from the original on 2009-01-19.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sequoia Capital provides funding to Loopt". Archived from the original on 2007-12-10. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."New Enterprise Associates provides funding to Loopt". Archived from the original on 2008-09-14.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Loopt Board of Directors". Archived from the original on 2008-12-20.
  9. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Green Dot to Acquire Loopt". GPS World. 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2025-07-09.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Loopt's Sam Altman on Why He Sold to Green Dot for $43.4M". AllThingsD. Retrieved 2025-07-09.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Boost Loopt Commercial". YouTube. 15 December 2006. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Loopt now supports Blackberry". Archived from the original on 2009-03-02.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Loopt and CBS Mobile Partner for GPS Location-Based Ads". Mashable. 6 February 2008.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hendrickson, Mark (2008-10-03). "Earthcomber Cries Patent Infringement Against Loopt". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-07-09.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Earthcomber drops patent lawsuit against TechCrunch, Loopt". 23 March 2009.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."More Details On Loopt's Acquisition of GraffitiGeo". 22 October 2009.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Looking for something fun to do? Try the new Loopt Pulse". Archived from the original on 2010-03-15.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Vision Behind Loopt Pulse". Archived from the original on 2010-04-11.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Plan your next move on the new Pulse on Loopt for BlackBerry". Archived from the original on 2010-04-18.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Van Grove, Jennifer (10 March 2012). "Loopt was a lemon, dropping to just 500 daily active users prior to sale". Reuters.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."getsatisfaction.com: How can I never receive another Loopt SMS invitation ever?". Archived from the original on 2011-12-29.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Loopt In: iPhone Invite Confusion".
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Loopt In: Improved iPhone Invites".
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Loopt In: Get new version of Loopt for iPhone now!".[permanent dead link]

References

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