Retailigence tracks whether an item is in stock at stores near you

Shop assistants everywhere, rejoice! Finally a technology that aims to spell the death of the all too frequent question: “Do you have that in stock?

Retailigence provides a backend database to serve both mobile shoppers and retailers. Since the launch in 2010, over 5 million consumers are unknowingly using the technology to find out whether items they need are in stores and stocked nearby. If you’ve ever browsed a digital catalogue or used a comparison shopping barcode scanner like ShopSavvy, you’ve likely used Retailigence.

The technology works by pulling data from retailers’ inventory systems, usually a sophisticated system like SAP or NetSuite, into a database in the cloud. They make money by charging retailers like Target and Best Buy to distribute this information to consumers and drive foot traffic into local branches.

The biggest challenge facing this company is the sheer amount of competition. With Google and eBay owned Milo encroaching on the space, it’s an ambitious play. The judges at MobileBeat’s Innovation Competition voiced similar concerns. A spokesperson for the company responded to these concerns in an interview that the company is not a destination site — unlike competitors, it it purely functions in the back-end.

The Redwood City-based startup has raised $4.2 million in funding and is making moves towards its second major funding round this Fall. They count Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Motorola Solutions, and Quest Venture Partners among their investors.

The hyper-local marketing platform competed today for best in class at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat 2012 conference in San Francisco.