Firefly
On June 1, Firefly will start rolling out its car-top billboards on Ubers and Lyfts, giving drivers an extra income source. It will also be swapping out some static advertisements on top of traditional taxis thanks to the acquisition of media company Strong Outdoor's digital operations, which has a contract with the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade.
The funding round helps Firefly buy its way into the New York City's traditional taxi market and turn yellow cab ads into its digital billboards, plus fine-tune its advertising product. It already redesigned the taxi topper and added sensors to measure everything from air pollution to potholes in the pavement. The sensors also help it better aim ads at geo-targeted locations.
Firefly will need to attract bigger brands to continue its expansion. Gunay says his company is in talks with larger consumer goods brands now that it's expanded from San Francisco to Los Angeles and New York. He declined to comment on revenue, but said his company is still not profitable.