The TrackR series of products (TrackR sticker, TrackR wallet, and most recently TrackR bravo) was developed by TrackR, a Santa Barbara, CA-based startup company, originally named Phone Halo. The company was founded by Chris Herbert and Christian Smith, two UC Santa Barbara graduates who met during their college years.
The idea for TrackR began when Chris almost lost his car to the Pacific Ocean because he couldn’t find his keys, ultimately redefining the definition of beach side parking. After brainstorming a solution, Chris and Christian entered into the UC Santa Barbara business plan competition and won.
Since that time, several revisions of Phone Halo have been released including Cobra Tag, inSite, TrackR wallet and TrackR sticker. Each better than the last. Over a quarter of a million devices later, the team is proud to announce TrackR bravo and represents the original vision for the company of taking the database of items in your head and moving that to your phone.
TrackR is a crowdfunding pioneer, having raised more than $2 million on IndieGoGo here, here and here.
In October, 2015, TrackR announced $8.7 million in A round funding led by Foundry Group.
In May, 2016, an investment in TrackR by Amazon.com was reported, to develop an interface between TrackR device and the Amazon’s Echo device and Alexa virtual assistant.