Tile Secures $45 Million to Advance Embedded Partnerships, International Growth, Product and Service Expansions

SAN MATEO, Calif., -- Tile, the world’s leading smart location company, today announced the closing of its Series C fundraising round, with a minority growth investment led by Francisco Partners, a global technology-focused private equity firm. The investment will accelerate plans to expand Tile’s embedded partnerships whereby third party products become findable just like Tile’s popular first party devices. The investment will also allow Tile to grow more aggressively internationally, expand into new product categories, and enhance its Premium service to deliver more peace of mind to its growing community of users.

The announcement comes as Tile posts strong results in early 2019, including growing sell-through in Europe by 160% in the most recent quarter, as well as more than doubling unit sales on Prime Day in the United States. The Company also reports that sign-ups for its Premium service, launched in October 2018, have significantly exceeded initial expectations and will be a key focus going forward.

Tile has grown substantially in recent years as customers increasingly rely on the technology to do more than find lost keys: users now depend on the popular service to remind them if they’ve left for work without their laptop, locate lost luggage, find the family cat hiding in the backyard, and even to keep track of the jacket a child may frequently leave behind. The Company’s growth coincides with a time when daily life is becoming more hectic, leaving the average person spending nearly a year of their lifetime looking for misplaced items.

“Millions of users already trust us to safeguard their belongings and find misplaced items -- we will continue to deliver on that promise and more,” said CJ Prober, CEO of Tile. “This investment ushers in a new chapter for Tile: with new products and expanded partnerships, we can better solve the everyday pain point of losing or misplacing the things that matter most to our global customer base.”

This investment comes as Tile reaches a tipping point with its embedded strategy which began with product partners like Bose, Skullcandy and Sennheiser, and continues to grow with semiconductor partners like Qualcomm, Nordic and Dialog, resulting in millions of Tile-enabled third party devices in several new verticals by the end of this year.

“Tile pioneered the smart location category,” said Andrew Kowal, Partner with Francisco Partners. “With Bluetooth technology projected to be included in nearly 30 billion devices shipping in the next five years, Tile is poised to deliver an embedded finding solution for a rapidly expanding market. We are extremely excited to be partnering with Tile as the company enters the next chapter of its growth story.”

Tile also raised a portion of the Series C investment from existing investors GGV Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners, as well as new investors Bryant Stibel and SVB Financial Group.

About Tile

Tile gives everything the power of smart location. Leveraging its vast community that spans 230 countries and territories, Tile’s cloud-based finding platform helps people find the things that matter to them most. The global Tile community helps locate more than five million unique items every day. The company is based in San Mateo, CA and is backed by Francisco Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and GGV Capital. For more information, please visit Tile.com.

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a leading global private equity firm that specializes in investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has raised over $14 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 275 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. The firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit: www.franciscopartners.com.

About Bryant Stibel

Bryant Stibel was founded in 2013 to provide strategic, financial, and operational support to businesses with a focus across technology, media, and data. The Bryant Stibel platform is unique in that it combines the creative vision of Kobe Bryant, one of the world’s most well known and respected sports icons, with Jeff Stibel, a proven market-driven operator and serial entrepreneur, alongside a team of proven public and private company executives. The team has extensive experience operating technology and data-driven businesses, as well as deploying capital through its growth and venture platforms. For more information, please visit www.BryantStibel.com.

About SVB Financial Group

For more than 35 years, SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB) and its subsidiaries have helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB Financial Group’s businesses, including Silicon Valley Bank, offer commercial, investment and private banking, asset management, private wealth management, brokerage and investment services and funds management services to companies in the technology, life science and healthcare, private equity and venture capital, and premium wine industries. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, SVB Financial Group operates in centers of innovation around the world. Learn more at www.svb.com.

ABOUT TILE
Tile gives everything the power of smart location. Leveraging its vast community that spans 230 countries and territories, Tile’s cloud-based finding platform helps people find the things that matter to them most. The global Tile community helps locate more than five million unique items every day.