MANNHEIM, Germany, August 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

The young hyperlocal communication start-up from Mannheim, Germany attracted USD 14.5 million in investments in its second growth capital and media services financing round.

Spotted is a social discovery app that applies a hyperlocal approach to real life and brings together people who cross paths every day. The app revolutionizes social connection by turning missed opportunities into second chances. Its anonymous and romantic flirt messages used to initiate contact stand out in particular, compared with many other dating apps in which "purely" voyeuristic satisfaction and visual impressions are the focus.

Participants in the capital round were, alongside the current investors, Media Ventures GmbH from Cologne, Germany (Cologne media mogul Dirk Ströer's capital investment firm) and Prof. Wolf M. Nietzer's Wolfman Holdings GmbH, the Deutsche Balaton AG affiliate in Heidelberg, Germany.

Along with seven-digit growth capital, the Spotted team secured a long-term media partnership with Media Ventures GmbH, and access to attractive advertising formats and penetration with various partners in the out-of-home sector and digital advertising channels.

"In the past 11 months we have built and developed one of the best-known social discovery apps in Germany, Switzerland and Austria with a small budget and extensive optimizations, and are currently expanding very quickly into other countries as well. In another year at the latest we will break the 10-million-user threshold. Spotted will become the biggest app in hyperlocal communication," declares CEO Nik Myftari, who is currently in Silicon Valley preparing for another financing round with US investors. The current investment is intended for the further development of the app, as well as its international expansion.

"The evolution of Spotted's figures is what convinced us. We are pleased to help fortify this young company as a co-investor in this financing round. Both the business model and the team working with Nik Myftari show great promise," says Rolf Birkert, Chairman of Deutsche Balaton AG.

About

Spotted is a social discovery app that applies a hyperlocal approach to real life and brings together people who cross paths every day. We stand for a new and individual way for people to get to know each other. A way that centres real moments and the real life. Fueled by this vision, Nik Myftari founded Spotted 2013 in Germany's most romantic city, Heidelberg. Today the app is reaching over a million people from Heidelberg, Paris, London to Rio, New York and even Casablanca and Seoul. Users can download the iOS and Android app for free via http://www.joinspotted.com or directly from the app stores.

Contact:
Nik Myftari (CEO)
Mail: nik@spotted.de
Phone: +49-176-84468273

SOURCE Spotted GmbH