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Field Agent Receives $2M Round from Kansas City VC Firm

2 min read

Fayetteville startup Field Agent has received a $2 million funding round from Five Elms Capital of Kansas City, the firm announced Tuesday.

Field Agent CEO Rick West said the money will be used for new product development and international expansion. Field Agent has grown a network of more than 600,000 international “agents” who use their smartphones to provide retail intelligence through a Field Agent app.

Essentially, Field Agent users provide companies with “eyes and ears” on the ground by performing audits and gathering market intelligence. Agents are paid for their intel through PayPal, and Field Agent is paid for that intel by client companies that include many Fortune 500 firms.

“Our clients have asked us to come along side them to create new products on our mobile platform, including a Do-It-Yourself solution to directly access our global research network,” West said in a statement.

West said the company’s network of agents determines if products are in stock and on the shelf, performs promotional display audits, checks competitor pricing and mystery shops via several audit and research methodologies. Field Agent also delivers summary reports with insights at a fraction of the price and significantly faster than traditional providers, he said.

“Our clients come to us because we have walked in their shoes and understand what it takes to deliver best-in-class data and insights from stores and homes along the consumer’s path to purchase,” West said. “In-store execution and shopper insights is where it’s at, and we can help clients and business owners maximize their efforts by providing important data and insights faster and more affordably than our competition.”

Field Agent, an Innovate Arkansas client firm, launched in April 2010, and the Five Elms round represents that firm’s second investment in the company. In May 2013, Five Elms invested $2.5 million in Field Agent.

“Five Elms focuses on working with outstanding entrepreneurs who are changing their industries,” Fred Coulson, managing partner of Five Elms Capital, said in a news release. “Field Agent is highly unique in its ability to service its clients better than its competitors through a combination of technology and industry expertise. In just two short years since our original investment, Field Agent has quickly become the industry leading provider of real-time, location-specific data collection and market research through its proprietary app and reporting engine.”

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