Chattanooga startup Pass It Down recently raised $860,000 and landed deals with three Fortune 500 companies.
Way to represent. But, wait, what’s Pass It Down, again?
After launching in 2015 as a business-to-consumer company that allowed people to document and preserve living history, the company has evolved into a digital exhibit builder platform.
The company is also in talks with several Chattanooga organizations about building “state-of-the-art, immersive experiences,” founder and Chattanooga native Chris Cummings said.
What does it do?
Pass It Down allows any cultural institution or brand — think museums, universities, libraries, and even sports teams — to create interactive online and touch screen exhibits to drive visitor engagement.
Businesses and organizations pay to license Pass It Down’s templates and storytelling features to create Smithsonian-level exhibits easily and quickly.
Product-wise that looks like physical, digital exhibits that engage a visitor more than a static sign or online content that elevates an experience.
Examples
For example, a Portland, Oregon organization used Pass It Down’s platform to showcase the city’s many murals.
Pass It Down also created an in-depth, interactive timeline of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life.
Museums and libraries can use the platform to put the history they’ve preserved in digital formats that visitors want. Sports teams can use the platform to get kids off their phones that are distracting them from the game, and instead pull them into the action using technology. Brands or universities can use it to create exhibits that are easy to change daily, Cummings said.
We need more info. How about some fast facts?
- Pass it down now has about 12 employees and a presence in three cities — Chattanooga; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Austin, Texas.
- The new round of seed funding came through VentureSouth, a top angel investment group in North America.
- The money will help the company expand software and marketing teams + advance the product’s roadmap to meet rapidly growing customer demand, Cummings also said.
- There are a variety of pricing options, depending on whether an organization is for-profit. Costs start as low as $3,000 a year and there’s special COVID-19 pricing online for organizations that have annual budgets of less than $750,000.