Hownd Acquires Australian Guest WiFi Platform PoweredLocal

Hownd^®, a technology company that generates effortless foot traffic and revenue for brick and mortar merchants, has acquired PoweredLocal, an Australian provider of mesh WiFi solutions that convert real-world visitors into digital profiles complete with contact information to drive ongoing engagement and repeat visits.

The acquisition adds new capabilities to the Hownd platform, increases the company’s customer base of local merchants, and accelerates its expansion into markets around the world.

For local merchants, customers often visit but leave no trace, which means the business has no way to convert that one-time visitor into a loyal customer.  To solve this challenge, the PoweredLocal Mesh WiFi solution will be rebranded as MyHownd^® WiFi and fully integrated into the Hownd platform.

Merchants who have MyHownd WiFi will provide visitors with free and secure WiFi in exchange for contact details, giving local businesses an effortless way to build marketable customer lists and drive more frequent repeat foot traffic via automated bounceback promotions. Businesses using MyHownd WiFi can display special offers to customers at their location, and guest usage controls are also available.

The acquisition of PoweredLocal adds more than 1,500 local merchants to the Hownd platform, increasing the company’s active customer base to well over 3,500 businesses around the world.

This acquisition also continues Hownd’s international growth.  The PoweredLocal team will become known as Hownd Australia, providing a regional base for sales and support activities across Asia-Pacific markets. This move builds upon Hownd’s growing network of international resellers and existing localization features within the Hownd platform.

“It was love at first sight for Hownd and PoweredLocal,” says Brandon Willey, CEO of Hownd, “PoweredLocal has built a proven process for helping local merchants collect visitor information, but the gap was always with monetizing that information.  By combining our companies and products, we will be stronger together as we help local merchants drive the foot traffic and generate the revenue so critical to their livelihoods.”

“It’s great to be joining the Hownd team,” says Gary Tramer, Co-Founder of PoweredLocal. “This combination completes the natural fit between our platforms, and together we will be able to better help more local merchants around the world turn visitors into loyal customers.”