Cyborg anthropologist’s startup brings people & computers closer together

Longtime cyborg anthropologist Amber Case has spent the better part of a the past several years researching how people connect to computers; now, she’s launching a startup to make those connections more seamless than ever.

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“I’ve been talking about the history of mobile and computers and the increasing connectivity between technology and human beings,” Case told VentureBeat in a recent phone call. “But people still weren’t building the solutions for real-life problem-solving in these sectors.”

Case saw a huge technology gap (and a corresponding huge opportunity) in the areas of location and proximity. “Location is an invisible interface,” she told us, “and I wanted to build something to bring that to life.”

Case’s new company is Geoloqi — pronounced “geo-low-key,” because it’s intended to be easy to use. With this startup, she told us, “I’m taking what I’ve learned in cyborg anthropology and applying that directly.”

The Geoloqi platform is device agnostic, language agnostic, location-source agnostic and carrier agnostic. It gives devs a complete location toolkit (which includes geofencing), battery management features (long a stumbling block for GPS-heavy apps), and real-time data storage and analytics.

The startup has been the buzz of the Internet for a couple months, but today marks its official launch as well as the availability of its fully agnostic SDK for iOS and Android, as well as its proprietary API.

Case describes Geoloqi as a complete stack of geolocation tools that allows developers to unlock the full potential of real-time, location-based services.

We asked Case about similar toolkits such as those from NeuAer or SimpleGeo (which was recently acquired by Urban Airship). “SimpleGeo never had persistent background GPS or true location-based analytics or true geofencing,” said Case, “and I think people really wanted those. There was this missing piece that needed to be there in location.”

Case’s missing link is currently aimed mostly at large enterprises and government organizations.

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“You can send an alert to everyone in a certain location if there’s an emergency,” Case offered as an example of how Geoloqi could be used. “A security team could use it to track and communicate with each other. You can request a cab and watch it arrive in real time. You can use it to limit access to files based on location, such as only letting someone access a file if you’re at your headquarters.”

Case said the technology could also be used for home automation.

Currently, some of Geoloqi’s customers military/security customers are using the platform for personnel recovery. “When they’re deployed, they need to make sure they’re safe,” Case explained. “If there’s a sniper, they can draw a geofence. And if someone is within that boundary, they get an alert.”

Geoloqi has a long queue of would-be customers in the retail, government, and security verticals, but Case couldn’t reveal the exact number of clients when we spoke. Currently, the startup has six full-time staffers and is recruiting heavily.

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“We’ve raised $350,000, and although we’re making a good chunk of revenue … we’re poised to grow very quickly,” said Case, adding that future, larger rounds of venture capital are definitely “a possibility.”

Also, Case and team are engineering strategic partnerships to bring their product to other verticals such as healthcare — which in turn would add up to more revenue for the young startup.