Location-based ad startup Placecast has added $3 million in additional funding. The company says it will use the cash to expand its ‘ShopAlerts’ service, which sends people promotional text messages when they’re near a specific retail location. (It’s all opt-in). This is a double hot space — with both Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) buying up mobile ad networks and with ‘location’ seemingly replacing ‘real-time’ as the buzz word du jour.
And indeed, in its announcement, Placecast takes the highly unusual step of mentioning a specific company that theoretically could be interested in acquiring it. Talk about chutzpah! (From the e-mail a representative sent us: “The 451 Group’s mobile analyst, Thomas Rasmussen believes the next mobile ad M&A will happen with a location twist. He predicts someone like Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will want to buy a company like Placecast.”)
This is an add-on to the $5 million round the company raised only five months ago. The cash is coming from existing investors, Quatrex Capital, ONSET Ventures and Voyager Capital.

{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2010\/03\/23\/419-placecast-gets-3-million-more-for-location-based-ads\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_c4e4915951717dd2047ee6b05a1c00bc","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}