Phunware Announces the PhunCoin Launch Alliance

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Phunware (NASDAQ: PHUN), a leading enterprise cloud platform for mobile which provides software, solutions, data and services for brands worldwide, announced the creation of the PhunCoin Launch Alliance, a comprehensive data ecosystem for forward-thinking brands looking for disruptive innovation in mobile user engagement and rewards. This first-of-its-kind program is a blockchain-powered, mobile-first data ecosystem connecting brands and consumers without intermediaries. Phunware's Multiscreen as a Service (MaaS) platform currently reaches one in 10 mobile devices globally, comprised of more than one petabyte of data growing at more than five terabytes per day. Using the company's fully-regulated and fully-compliant cryptocurrency security token, PhunCoin, as the economic core of its data exchange, the company has crypto-enabled its MaaS platform, making PhunCoin uniquely positioned for mainstream adoption by both brands and consumers worldwide. This new ecosystem offers brands unprecedented audience insights and interactions through a value-based exchange, while allowing consumers to take control and be rewarded for sharing their personal information and data.

Through 10 years of providing brands with everything they need to succeed on mobile, Phunware has seen firsthand the frustration marketers experience around the lack of transparency from traditional data exchanges. While the black box approach to buying data and audiences has worked reasonably well up until now, increasingly companies share the same concerns around data privacy, respect and economic incentives as consumers. As organizations demand more accountability and transparency from their marketing dollars spent, and as consumers demand more visibility into how their personal data and information is used and monetized, immutable, open and fully-auditable transactions and interactions will become the new normal for all ecosystem participants. The PhunCoin ecosystem was created specifically to address these challenges and aims to solve the current market confusion and opaqueness around data transactions and interactions with full, open accountability and transparency to all parties at all times.

Phunware has architected both its data exchange and its PhunCoin ecosystem to allow brands to purchase PhunCoin using their traditional mobile marketing dollars and then use those PhunCoin to directly access audiences on Phunware's data exchange. The PhunCoin ecosystem allows brands to eliminate intermediaries and connect directly with consumers, rewarding them economically for voluntarily participating in the sharing of their personal data and information in exchange for completing brand-specific loyalty and monetization activities and interactions on a 1:1 basis.

For January and February of 2019, PhunCoin Launch Alliance participants will receive incentive multiples on their marketing spend with Phunware through the following tiered offering:

• Gold: Brands that spend more than $1,000,000 on PhunCoin token purchases will receive 2 times the value of data and media on the Phunware data exchange for their purchases.
• Silver: Brands that spend $100,001 to $1,000,000 on PhunCoin token purchases will receive 1.5 times the value of data and media on the Phunware data exchange for their purchases.
• Bronze: Brands that spend $10,000 to $100,000 on PhunCoin token purchases will receive 1.25 times the value of data and media on the Phunware data exchange for their purchases.

"We're pleased to be innovating the next level of consumer engagement for brands," said Phunware co-founder and CEO, Alan S. Knitowski. "Increasingly, brands are tired of being embarrassed by the way external intermediary partners treat consumer data. Leveraging the blockchain to create an open, transparent and trusted relationship between brands and consumers provides the data compliance and protection that brands are looking for today, as well as identity protection and economic incentives for the voluntary participation of their consumers."

For more information on this program, please email [email protected]. For more information on PhunCoin, please visit www.phuncoin.com.

About Phunware, Inc.:
Phunware is the pioneer of Multiscreen as a Service (MaaS), a fully integrated enterprise software platform for mobile that provides companies the products, solutions and data and services necessary to engage, manage and monetize their mobile application audiences globally at scale that allows brands to engage, manage and monetize their anytime, anywhere mobile application users worldwide. Phunware helps the world's most respected brands create category-defining mobile experiences, with more than one billion active devices touching its platform each month. For more information about how Phunware is transforming the way consumers and brands interact with mobile in the virtual and physical worlds, visit www.phunware.com, www.phuncoin.com and follow @phunware on all social media platforms.