Tritech Media, owned by South African entrepreneur William Kirsh, has acquired a 25% holding in real-time location-based technology company ProximityID for an undisclosed amount.
Under the deal, Tritech has an option to increase its holding to 50.1%. The remainder of the shares are held by the founders of the business and fintech company Synthesis Ventures, a subsidiary of Synthesis Software Technologies, which developed the technology.
Tritech Media is continuing with its acquisitive business strategy following its purchase of a 20% interest in big data and lead generation company Geospatial Data Solutions for an undisclosed amount in June.
In April, the company announced it had acquired a 51% interest in Ionizr, a local provider of real-time proximity advertising technology, for an undisclosed amount. In December last year, the media company also acquired a 45% stake in local gaming industry innovator GameZBoost.
Among other businesses, Kirsh helped build local media giant Primedia. He hogged the limelight in 2013 following the aborted merger between his company, Value+ Nettwork, with JSE-listed FoneWorx. Value+ Nettwork has rebranded to Tritech Media.
The company says real-time location-based marketing in shopping malls and retail tenants is considered the fastest growing sector of the advertising industry, projected to grow from $4.5 billion currently to $18 billion in 2018.
ProximityID says its vision is to bridge the gap between the customer and retailer in a precise and innovative way to improve the customer's shopping experience and offer retailers the ability to provide customer service.
It adds the ProximityID app makes it easier for consumers to communicate with retailers by consolidating their personal details, loyalty cards, access cards and even parking tickets before transmitting the pertinent information to retailers and other partners geospatially, enabling retailers to analyse and take action from these data insights in real-time.
ProximityID can also determine a consumer's presence at the point of sale and transmit the required encrypted credentials, thereby enabling a cardless loyalty and rewards system with automatic customer acknowledgement.
The app automatically interacts on a consistent basis through wireless beacons that have a 70-metre to two-centimetre radius.
"We are delighted, shortly after the Ionizr acquisition, to now further entrench ourselves in this attractive, fast-growing sector of the advertising industry," says Kirsh.
"ProximityID and Ionizr have such a great complementary fit. Both Ionizr and ProximityID will also benefit from the geospatial data around shopping malls from our recently-announced acquisition of Geospatial Data Solutions."
"We are excited to become part of Tritech Media; the complementary fit with Ionizr is compelling. The relationship with Ionizr will speed up our route to market and its scope. We look forward to working together on this unique end-to-end solution, providing retailers and shopping centre owners with a 360-degree view of their customer's journey and the ability to offer pin-point personalised engagement," says Wayne Gluckmann, CEO and co-founder of ProximityID.
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