Roost to raise post-Y Combinator funding round, expand push notifications to Chrome & Firefox

Push notifications from apps on mobile devices are something we’re all used to. But push notifications work well on larger screens too, like the browser on a desktop computer. It’s something publishers and brands are getting excited about, as a way of engaging site visitors.

That’s where the Toledo, Ohio-born company Roost comes in. Roost is a push notification engine for websites. It’s used by about 2000 websites right now, Notice Software co-founder Tim Varner tells VentureBeat.

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Roost notifications appear to the user at the top of the browser window, and only after the user has opted in. A notification might ask a site visitor to log in or register at the site; Roost believes that users are about thirty times more likely to do so than if the request came from an email.

On the back end, Roost provides the site owner with all sorts of messaging and analytics options.

Roost has pre-baked integrations for publishers who use WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla. Integrations are also available for the Woo Commerce and Shopify e-commerce platforms.

Varner and company started building the product in 2013 and launched it in January. Roost uses a new notifications standard that has already been adopted on the Safari browser, but will be adopted by Chrome and Firefox soon.

So Roost will be expanding its notifications service to the Chrome and Firefox browsers on desktop browsers and to the Chrome browser for mobile, Varner told VentureBeat Tuesday.

Roost has been roosting in the Y Combinator incubator this summer and today ends its tour with a presentation at Y Combinator’s Demo Day.

Varner also tells VentureBeat that it will be raising another funding round after it graduates from its Y Combinator Class with its Demo Day presentation today. Varner says the details and size of the funding round are still being worked out.

The company has so far taken about $900,000 in seed funding from Rocket Ventures, the University of Toledo (U.T.I.E.), and Y Combinator ($125,000).

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