By Clancy Nolan 8/4/2005

Squareloop Inc., whose technology is designed to deliver location-based messages to cell phones, has pulled in more than $100,000 in seed financing.

Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology's Growth Acceleration Program, a state-chartered nonprofit corporation, contributed the $100,000 in convertible debt financing.

Other investors, including Cross Hill Financial Group and former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Chief Amit Yoran, also added an undisclosed amount to the round.

Joe Walsh, who leads business development and operations for Squareloop, declined to give a target for the seed round, but said the company would raise less than $1 million. Additionally, Squareloop plans to raise Series A financing in the first quarter of 2006.

The company's technology was initially developed by federally-funded research and development group MITRE Corp. for military applications, and licensed by Squareloop last year. Designed to send a variety of messages to cell phones, the technology has applications ranging from homeland security, warning people of a terrorist attacks or health threats for instance, to traffic advisories to marketing and advertising.

The technology, Walsh said, helps protect user privacy by not tracking cell phone users, making the technology easy to deploy for carriers and municipalities since it doesn't use a great deal of processor power.

"The way that a traditional tracking works is you have some big computer somewhere...pinging out to your phone: where's Joe right now, where's Joe right now? Do I have a message for him?" said Walsh. "We broadcast the message to you with the geographic target embedded into the message. We don't track your location."

McLean, Va.-based Squareloop was formed last October, and plans to release a beta version of its Mobile Alert Network during the fourth quarter, with a general release set for the end of the year.