Funambol said it will use the proceeds for continued growth in the push email market, to advance product R&D and to accelerate global expansion, particularly in Europe and Asia, as well as adding geographic support in new markets where they believe push email could take off

Funanmbol’s model is an interesting one – push email capabilities are ad funded rather than pay-up-front, with open source software – and looks like it has massive potential. After all, who doesn’t like free services? An ad funded service could be one way to break mobile email out of its corporate niche. We’ll be watching this one with interest.

Funambol Inc., the leading provider of Mobile 2.0 messaging software powered by open source, today announced it has enhanced its native open source wireless sync app for iPhone 2.0. The app uses the new iPhone 2.0 SDK and enables users to wirelessly sync PIM data with a wide variety of consumer and enterprise email systems and clients.

The free open source software will be available when iPhone 2.0 ships and the App Store opens, scheduled for July. iPhone users will be able to access the sync software via the free myFUNAMBOL portal. In contrast to MobileMe announced yesterday, myFUNAMBOL provides free syncing of PIM data and mobile email for mass market users. When the new Funambol iPhone open source software ships in July, it will initially sync contacts, followed by a version that also syncs calendars and notes.

“iPhone 2.0′s faster connectivity and new capabilities will appeal to many users. One of the first things they will want is to access their contacts, wherever they are stored,” said Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol CEO. “However, many users do not want to pay or plug-in to access their contacts and calendars, they want them for free via wireless sync. That’s why our original iPhone open source app was downloaded more than 100,000 times. Now that our software works with all new iPhones, users can wirelessly access their contacts and soon other PIM data, for free.”