Mobeam Appoints George Garrick CEO; Joseph Battoe Joins Company as EVP

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 21, 2015) - Mobeam, the unique global leader in mobile beaming technology, today announced it has appointed George Garrick as the company's president and CEO. The company also has tapped Joseph Battoe as executive vice president of retail and consumer solutions.

Mr. Garrick, 62, a veteran tech CEO, plans to quickly expand Mobeam's technology among retailers, CPG brands, and a wide range of other industries from transportation to health care in the U.S., as well as in Europe, Canada and China.

Founded in 2010, Mobeam completes the "last mile of mobile payments" with its patented light- and audio-based beaming technology that overcomes historical technical barriers preventing POS scanners from reading barcodes from smartphones. Popular and emerging "mobile payment" apps rely on NFC or other technology, which communicates with the credit card payment terminal, not the scanner. Bar-coded coupons and other promotional payment methods must be communicated to the POS scanner, not the payment terminal.

Mobeam enables point of sale (POS) laser scanners to read barcodes on mobile devices. Thus, payment apps can now carry loyalty cards, membership cards, gift cards, tickets, vouchers and coupons, providing them with universal POS access at retailers. Mobeam enables true mobile "wallets" and not just NFC-based card payment substitutes. Mobeam technology easily integrates with all existing mobile payment apps, thus completing their role as a complete mobile wallet. Mobeam also helps retailers curb operating costs by eliminating the need to scan paper coupons or key-in promotional codes.

Mr. Garrick said: "Mobile payment apps are the hottest area in mobile today with billions being invested to allow smartphones to pay at retail in place of cash, plastic cards and paper. You have SamsungPay, ApplePay, GooglePay in the US, and then Alipay, Wechat, and BaiduPay in Asia, just to mention the major ones. But with all due respect, every one of these apps is incomplete because they cannot replace bar-coded gift cards or coupons, which represent $20 billion in transactions annually for retailers."

Mobeam currently operates with more than 200 million Samsung phones and is in talks with other manufacturers to expand the technology to other market leading devices.

Mr. Garrick specializes in growth stage companies and turnarounds, and has overseen one IPO and four exits for a combined investor value of almost $3 billion. His background includes CEO, Board, or Investor roles with  Flycast, PlaceWare, Wine.com, 1-800-FREE411, Tapjoy, Social Shield, Brand.net. Shopzilla, Responsys, Digital Impact, Telephia, Comscore, Qik, Playdom, Adify, Dynamic Signal, Exitround and Shelfbucks.

Mr. Battoe, 57, joins the company from shopper marketing technology provider DS-IQ, where he served for five years as senior vice president of corporate development. He previously served for 12 years as CEO of Concept Shopping Inc. and, prior to that, ten years as division president of IRI. "Joe is the one person I know who has the necessary breadth and depth of knowledge and experience in retail operations and technologies which will help us take Mobeam to the next level", said Garrick.

Mr. Garrick and Mr. Battoe join Mobeam's senior management team of industry veterans, including Marcia Donner, COO; Venky Raju, Head of technology; and Jin Lee, SVP of engineering.

About Mobeam
Mobeam is a global leader in mobile enabling technology. Mobeam technology allows laser scanners to read barcodes, QR codes and related data from mobile devices, using patented technology that sends pulses of light or audio pulses to the sensor in scanners mimicking the black-and-white sequencing of standard barcodes. Mobeam is currently pre-loaded on more than 200 million mobile devices and enables retailers, CPGs and other companies to uniquely engage with consumers while increasing revenue opportunities. Mobeam was named a Red Herring Top 100 2015 award winner in the mobile industry segment. Additional information is available at www.mobeam.com.