• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 1, 2013

Business listings management startup Local Market Launch has secured $1.5 million in Series A funding from Rincon Venture Partners, adding to $1.2 million of founder-contributed seed funds and bringing the total capital raised to $2.7 million.

ValueClick founder Brian Coryat launched Local Market Launch in 2012. The company will use the funds to support services and technology to build solutions for brands with multiple locations, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. It also will develop its partner-branded products for local media channel partners.

The U.S. local search market will grow at a 6.1% compounded annual growth rate in the next few years -- from $6 billion in 2012 to $8.1 billion in 2017, according to the BIA/Kelsey's U.S. Local Media Forecast, 2012-2017.

Mobile and the drive for local search continue to fuel growth across changes in social. Facebook and Foursquare recently made changes to businesses' pages.

Some 73% of mobile searches trigger additional action and conversions, such as store visits, calls and purchases, according to a recent study from Google and Nielsen. Accurate business listing information becomes the workhorse underlying much of today’s local commerce, driven by mobile and online search.

On Monday, the Interactive Advertising Bureau released a white paper Monday titled "Local Search: Managing Listings Across Digital Platforms." Sabrina Alimi, senior manager of the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, presented elements at the MediaPost Search Insider Summit.