Firefly officially emerges from stealth with $21.5 million in seed funding to put digital ad billboards on top of Uber and Lyft cars

Firefly, a tech startup that gives drivers of ridesharing, taxi and delivery vehicles a way to earn more money, launched out of beta today. The company officially emerges from stealth with $21.5 million in seed funding to put digital ad billboards on top of Uber and Lyft cars. The seed funding was led by NFX with participation from Decent Capital (Tencent founders), Pelion Venture Partners, StartX, and Jeffrey Housenbold (SoftBank Vision Fund).

Founded in 2017, Firefly is building the first mobility based Smart Screens – Smart Cities advertising and data platform that utilizes the ride share and gig economy for distribution and scale. Our unique location-based, “situationally aware” software and 1st party data enables the most granular, audience based targeting of any away from home medium on any screen type.

Firefly gives drivers of ridesharing, taxi and delivery vehicles a way to earn more money — right now, about 20% more per month. Firefly does this by creating a media network using proprietary smart displays and software mounted on top of vehicles. The car-top units are also packed with data sensors, creating a data platform useful to the cities Firefly operates in.

Firefly provides its driver-partners the ability to earn significant additional income to enable them to get closer to achieving their personal goals. Its a leading innovators on all digital screen types with a goal to deliver performance and successful outcomes for our customers and partners.

“I firmly believe we have a civic duty to make our cities smarter and really add income to our driver partners,” says Firefly CEO and cofounder Kaan Gunay. “Firefly is a big idea — one of those companies that could change the landscape of how cities look and function. We believe that in the near future, when we watch movies made before Firefly, scenes will feel dated by the lack of Firefly-equipped vehicles driving by in the background — just as movies today feel dated when they have scenes with characters using pay phones,” James Currier, a Managing Partner at NFX said.

“We are excited to launch out of beta today! Read all about us from our lead investor,” the company said in a twitter post.

We are excited to launch out of beta today! Read all about us from our lead investor @NFXGuild https://t.co/YsH42K06NT #smartcity #innovation #firefly

— Firefly (@Firefly_Cities) December 6, 2018