InterApp, a Sacramento technology company that creates augmented reality from video of printed materials, has raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding.
The equity funding will be used to expand marketing and promotions, CEO Will Brown told the Business Journal.
Brown has been in the printing business for nearly two decades, and he still owns Full Color Business Cards and Flyers in the Arden area.
“I was seeing print being displaced by digital messaging and marketing," Brown said. "I don’t want to see print become obsolete."
InterApp’s smartphone app creates an interactive experience on the phone’s screen with printed images.
A printed image captured on a phone’s camera, with the InterApp platform, can be made dynamic with embedded messages, audio, links or animation.
“You don’t need advanced gear, like headsets or headphones. It’s your phone. It is anywhere you are,” Brown said.
The app allows users to interact with brands, apparel and art, and potentially earn rewards. The people behind the ads, the marketing, graphics, designers and artists, pay a subscription to use the platform to create interactive content, said Gabe Simien, head of marketing with InterApp.
The app has had 98,000 downloads on both Android and Apple operating systems, Brown said. It has 500 content creators and 2,000 campaigns have been done on it so far. Content creators pay a subscription to use the platform, which was designed to be simple enough for do-it-yourselfers, Brown said.
The app has many applications, Simien said. It can allow for an interactive experience through packaging. It can be used by artists and bands to give supporters access to more information and media.
There are even personal applications. Using the platform, a smartphone can animate a child’s picture book with characters and have the phone read the book in a parent’s voice.
Started in 2017, InterApp has bootstrapped its growth. The company is private and doesn’t disclose revenue. InterApp has 10 employees mostly in the Sacramento area along with a team of up to 20 in Pakistan.
