Just three months after emerging from stealth mode, Seattle mobile measurement startup Ground Truth has scored a substantial $7 million second round of venture capital financing. Total funding in the 20-person company now stands at $9.6 million. Leading the deal were new investors Emergence Capital Partners and Openair Ventures, which were joined by existing investors Steamboat Ventures and Voyager Capital in the deal.

Ground Truth is developing a new way to track how people use their mobile phones, relying on data provided directly to the startup by wireless carriers. It then packages that data and resells it to the wireless carriers as competitive intelligence.

"We are the first mobile measurement company to have actual numbers," said Ground Truth founder Michael "Luni" Libes in an interview with TechFlash earlier this year. "And we are the first company to provide the necessary critical metrics for publishers and advertisers to do their business." Libes is a well known Seattle area entrepreneur, previously having a hand in startup companies such as Medio Systems, Nimble and 2Way.

Libes

With the new cash in the bank, Ground Truth plans to expand the service in the U.S. and internationally. It already has about a dozen customers using the product, the company said.

There's some interesting history of mobile measurement startups in Seattle. In 2008, comScore placed a stake in the sand when it purchased Seattle's M:Metrics for $44.3 million. It continues to operate offices in Seattle, and serves as a competitor to Ground Truth's new offering.

As a result of the financing, Kevin Spain of San Mateo, California-based Emergence Capital will join the Ground Truth board. Spain is a former executive at Microsoft and Electronic Arts who is excited about Ground Truth's new offering.

“Mobile is a critical component to the growth of technology-enabled services, such as social media, cloud computing and SaaS business services,” said Spain in a release. “Ground Truth provides unequalled insight into this vast opportunity with its accurate and precise measures of actual usage of these services on mobile devices."