INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Branch, the deep-linking startup backed by Andy Rubin Playground Ventures, will enter the unicorn club with an upcoming funding round.The
four-year-old company, which helps brands create links between websites and mobile apps, has authorized the sale of $129 million in Series D
shares, according to sources and confirmed by PitchBook, which tracks venture capital deals
The infusion of capital values the company at roughly $1 billion.In an e-mail this morning, Branch CEO Alex Austin declined to comment.The
Redwood City-based startup closed a $60 million Series Cled by Playground in April 2017, bringing its total equity raised to $113 million
It also backed by NEA, Pear Ventures, Cowboy Ventures and Madrona Ventures
Rubin, for his part, is a co-founder of Android, as well as the founder of Essential, a smartphone company that, though highly valued, has
had less success.Branch deep-linking platform helps brands drive app growth, conversions, user engagement and retention
Deep links are links that take you to a specific piece of web content, rather than a website homepage
This, for example, is a deep link
This is not.A Brief History Of Deep LinkingDeep links are used to connect web or e-mail content with apps
That way, when you&re doing some online shopping using your phone and you click on a link to an item on Jet.com, you&re taken to the Jet app
installed on your phone, instead of Jet desktop site, which would provide a much poorer mobile experience.Branch supports 40,000 apps with
roughly 3 billion monthly users
The company counts Airbnb, Amazon, Bing, Pinterest, Reddit, Slack, Tinder and several others as customers
Following its previous round of venture capital funding, Austin told TechCrunch that the company had seen &tremendous growth& ahead of the
&[We] have been fortunate enough to become the clear market leader,& he said
&There so much more we can accomplish in deep linking and this money will be used to fund Branch continued platform growth.&
