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Working in the mobile advertising business, New York City-based Xtify has been building its platform for brands and other app developers, allowing for geo-targeted notifications — most often, ads — that are pushed to consumers when they are within a predefined area, say a one-mile radius from a department store. The company has announced it has raised $2.8 million in a first round of institutional funding, which it is using to beef up its product development and team, currently ten-people strong.

Xtify picked up the funding from Acadia Woods Partners, SeventySix Capital and an undisclosed, significant New York-based angel investor. CEO Josh Rochlin says Xtify is looking to raise another sum of money in the fall, due to major announcements and partnerships that are rolling out soon, although he declined to disclose those just yet.

Xtify’s platform allows for brands, businesses and anyone building apps for iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices to create and manage push notification campaigns. When users who have downloaded an app – for instance, an app for a clothes brand – are within a certain distance from a retailer, they will get a notification of a sale or special offer, or a prompt for whatever action the app developer desires, on their cell phone, much like the ones users get now when there are software updates available. The trick is that the app doesn’t have to be running in the foreground: Users will ...