| Website | loku.com |
| Blog | blog.loku.com |
| @loku | |
| Category | Consumer Web |
| Phone | 512-650-8752 |
| Employees | 14 |
| Founded | 5/08 |
| Description | Making local discovery fun |
| TOTAL | $1.73M |
| VENTURE FUNDING TOTAL | $1.73M |
| Angel, 1/08 | $400k |
| Angel, 11/10 | $600k |
| Angel, 7/11 | $425k |
| Angel, 1/12 | $300k |
Loku is a revolutionary mobile app that makes local discovery fun and easy.
Loku helps people find new places, check out events, and stay informed of nearby happenings. Users get recognized and rewarded for their actions that benefit the community: staying informed of news, going to events, supporting local businesses, visiting new places, and contributing helpful tips.
We are currently in public Beta (HTML5 web app), open in San Francisco, NYC, LA, Chicago, DC and Austin. Try the app by pointing your mobile browser to Loku.com. Native apps coming soon.
SUCCESS TO DATE: Traffic is growing 50-80% month over month, recently crossing 80K+ uniques/mo, with 50K+ active users. Engagement metrics are strong (5+ minutes time on site) and the press flattering.
THE OPPORTUNITY: Being active in your local area takes work. It’s hard to find nearby concerts, news, restaurants, or new experiences you’ll love. Moreover, you don’t get much social credit for finding and doing cool things. Existing tools (web search, alternative weeklies, newspapers, etc.) are hard to use, largely un-social, and not personalized to your taste.
TECHNOLOGY: Our proprietary tech platform (“Sherpa”), developed over 3 years, includes work in NLP, machine learning (SVM), computer vision, Hadoop, proprietary geotagging, and custom web crawling. Our custom-built social analytics engine analyzes GBs of local info across the web, social media, pictures, videos, APIs, and more. We then match specific content to the right people. We have submitted 3 patents, and have filed 3 additional provisional patents.
USER ACQUISITION: We acquire traffic through two main sources:
Product-built virality: The app highlights events or local happenings that you and a friend might enjoy together: including events, places, news, and pictures. The app becomes more useful and fun with more friends using it, an incentive to invite your network.
Mobile SEO: Loku is an HTML5 web app, and thus optimized for local, mobile search. In Austin, TX, we currently average 17K organic hits per month, and growing 80% m/o/m.
Introducing the Loku App
Added: 4/22/12
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Loku is a revolutionary mobile app that makes local discovery fun and easy. Loku helps people find new places, check out events, and stay informed of nearby happenings. Users get recognized and rewarded for their actions that benefit the community: staying informed of news, going to events, supporting local businesses, visiting new places, and contributing helpful tips. We are currently in public Beta (HTML5 web app), open in San Francisco, NYC, LA, Chicago, DC and Austin. Try the app by pointing your mobile browser to Loku.com. Native apps coming soon.
Loku Pocketbook: Making Local Discovery Fun.
