Commerce Signals, a new data collaboration company serving retailers, mobile operators, banks and payment networks, today announced it has secured $4 million in a Series A funding round led by OpenAir Equity Partners.

Commerce Signals' Federated Data platform transforms the way companies share and collaborate on data. It enables data owners, such as mobile operators, payment entities and others to share their data, while ensuring it remains within their own infrastructures -- an approach that lets them retain control over where and to whom data is sent, as well as the use for which it is intended. At the same time, the Federated Data platform gives purchasers of data -- digital ad companies, retailers, and others -- the opportunity to access the rich customer insights generally held by the regulated sector. The Commerce Signals approach encourages trust and protects consumer privacy and data ownership, while facilitating value-added customer experiences and transactions.

'Consumers and companies won't support data sharing without trust and control. Data must be held locally, with a clear trail of where and how it is used,' said Commerce Signals founder and CEO, Thomas C. Noyes. 'Regulated entities like banks and mobile operators have tremendous data assets that must be internally managed and closely controlled, but those assets need to be combined with external data to create the great experiences, products and services customers want. We solve this problem with our new model: Federated Data. We allow each participant to control data locally, with strict parameters on how the data interacts with new partners. We tell our customers: it's 'your data, your environment, your permissions.''

Commerce Signals' 'neutral platform' includes a patent-pending signals model. The company does not store the data. Businesses maintain data within their own environments and share only de-identified, encrypted, aggregated data signals that match the specific need of the purchaser. Along with more control for the data supplier, data purchasers can be more specific and targeted in their efforts, and better track and measure ad effectiveness.

'Commerce Signals allows us to consistently obtain the data we need from a wide array of providers,' said Scott Shaw, founder of Fishbowl, the leading provider of an analytics platform helping the restaurant industry drive predictable sales growth and maximize profitable decision-making, and currently serving more than 90,000 restaurant locations. 'This enables Fishbowl to deliver the best analytics, using the best data, thereby answering questions for our customers such as 'who is my customer?' and 'how do I find more like them?''

The need for balance between data use and consumer privacy is broadly recognized by regulated and non-regulated entities.

'Visa helps merchants and clients across the world grow their businesses by leveraging data and insights, including local, regional and macroeconomic trends across industries,' said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa. 'Through a range of tools and services, we strive to deliver a powerful way to help our partners expand and grow commerce, while respecting the privacy of account holders and merchants.'

About Commerce Signals, Inc.
Commerce Signals is the industry's leading Federated Data company. The company's innovative framework allows retailers, mobile operators, banks and payment networks to manage permissioned use of data from their own secure infrastructure. Commerce Signals acts as a neutral party, facilitating collaboration without storing the data. This new approach creates unprecedented opportunities for business partnerships and growth in a way that protects the businesses and their customers. For more information, please visit commercesignals.com, follow the company blog, or follow Commerce Signals on Twitter, https://twitter.com/commercesignals.

About Fishbowl
Fishbowl helps restaurants drive predictable sales growth through its guest-centric, closed loop marketing analytics platform. Highly scalable, the SaaS platform ingests data quickly from various sources, including email, SMS, direct mail, social, online ordering, reservations, etc., and uses industry-specific proprietary algorithms to provide clients with actionable guest insights. The integration with Fishbowl's omni-channel engagement solutions enables clients to efficiently use those insights to drive deeper customer relationships. Serving over 90,000 restaurant locations, Fishbowl partners with key industry and technology companies including The Coca-Cola Company, OpenTable, the National Restaurant Association, and the leading POS manufacturers. Fishbowl is headquartered in Alexandria, VA. For more information, please visit our website at fishbowl.com, follow our blog at http://www.fishbowl.com/blog/ or visit our Twitter at https://twitter.com/Fishbowlinc or our LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/fishbowl-marketing.