Lost item finder Tile grabs another $25 million in funding

by Sarah Perez

Tile, the company that makes connected devices — which you add to keychains, bags, suitcases, laptops, or keep in your wallet in order to track items when they go missing — today announced it has raised a Series B-1 round of new funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners. In addition, Tile noted it has now hit two major milestones for its business: $100 million in revenue in 2016, and 10 million total units sold.

The new round included participation from existing investors GGV Capital and Khosla Ventures, as well as new investor Lead Edge Capital. To date, Tile has raised $59 million.

The company manufactures two styles of its devices, its original keychain dongle called the Tile Mate, and its thinner device designed to be inserted into wallets, called the Tile Slim. These devices work alongside a mobile application that can be used to locate the missing items. If you can’t find your keys, for example, you launch the app and hit the “Find” button, and they’ll ring when you’re within Bluetooth range.

However, if you’ve lost your item somewhere farther away, Tile leverages its community of users as a sort of crowdsourced lost item finder. That is, when another Tile user comes within range of your lost item, you’ll get an alert on your smartphone with its current location.

This now sizable community is Tile’s biggest advantage over competitors who make similar Bluetooth-connected dongles.

The company also last year launched its own platform, which makes its technology stack, app and network available to partners for use in their own products.

“Not only is Tile solving a very real problem for millions of people every day, but their growth trajectory is also extremely exciting,” said Byron Deeter, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, in a statement about the new funding. “We’re thrilled to be a part of Tile’s journey as it grows to become a household name and brings the promise of smart location to everything.”

The funding news follows the addition of several new executive hires at Tile, including its first CMO, marketing veteran Simon Fleming-Wood; VP of Strategic Partnerships, Ravi Adusumilli; and VP of Product, Vijay Shankar.

The funding will be used to continue to fuel Tile’s growth, says Tile co-founder and CEO Mike Farley.

“The new capital enables us to accelerate our growth by doubling-down on establishing our iconic brand, expanding our platform strategy and growing the Tile community, which already locates more than two million items every day across 230 countries and territories,” he tells TechCrunch.

San Mateo-based Tile today has more than 100 employees, and sells its products both online and in retail stores around the world.