Posts Tagged ‘investment’

We’re expanding our mobile portfolio. Know anyone who wants to sell?

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

That’s the email I got in this morning from a very big, international media company.

They’re looking to expand their mobile portfolio with joint ventures and acquisitions.

“What sort of mobile services?” I asked the chap.

“Anything. We’ll take a look at anything mobile and see if we can do business,” came the reply.

So.

If you’ve got a company you’d like to sell, or if you’d be interested in discussing joint ventures, we should talk.  I’ll plug you in.

If your business or concept is the sort of thing that an international media conglomerate might like like, definitely email.   So I’m thinking mobile consumer related services and applications.

Whack me a few lines as an overview and I’ll forward it to the chap.  If there’s interest, I’ll connect you.

As ever, I’m on ewan@mobileindustryreview.com.

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Posted in Business Enquiry | Comments

Obopay lands $20m for mobile payments

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Mobile payments company Obopay has nabbed a four round of funding worth $20 million from the likes of Essar Communications Holdings Limited, leading the round and existing investors including Citi, Societe Generale, Qualcomm, and Promethean and new investors like Olayan America Corporation also joined in.

The company is mainly a North American-based venture - it lists Verizon Wireless and Helio among its partners - and its mobile money transfer system works with US bank accounts using a widget, through a browser or SMS. While the company hasn’t given away what it plans to do with the latest round of investments, international expansion shouldn’t be ruled out - Obopay has a presence in India and a number of big names are falling over themselves to bring mobile money transfer to developing economies.

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Posted in Mobile Commerce | Comments

Investors get Buzzd over location-based social networking

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Buzzd, which specialises in location-based city guides and social networking, has reeled in its first round of investment led by Greycroft Partners and Monitor Ventures but so far hasn’t put a figure on the funding.

Buzzd says it’s going to put the funding towards “product development and distribution” and will get a new board member in the form of Fern Mandelbaum of Monitor.

What’s clever about Buzzd is that, as well as delivering all the usual city guide info from the likes of Time Out, it also makes use of social networking techniques to give users reviews on bars and the like from their friends - and who do you trust more to send you to a good bar than your mates? It’s also done a tie-up with a tequila firm, so users can even send their friends free drinks - nice touch.

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Posted in Mobile Applications | Comments

Red Bend inks $10m funding bonanza

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Mobile software management outfit Red Bend has got itself a $10 million in funding this week, thanks to Coral Capital Management, which was joined in the investment round by Red Bend’s existing investors: Carmel Ventures, Greylock Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Poalim Ventures and Infinity.

According to Red Bend, the company will use the investment for sales and marketing to try to expand further into the mobile and machine-to-machine markets, as well as licensing its software for new devices like 3G data cards and embedded modems. It will also use the funding for more R&D work.

It’s easy to see the potential for products that can manage software and applications over-the-air without the user having to take any action, especially as operating systems get smarter and operators push more and more online services. It’s also a major plus for the enterprise market, giving companies the ability to lock down their users’ devices without having to get them all back to the office.

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Posted in Mobile Applications | Comments

Motorola puts money where its mouth is in mobile TV

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

While all the ongoing specultion about where Motorola is going with its handset business trundle along in the background, the company is still laying down some cash for mobile investments. Motorola’s investment arm, Motorola Ventures has revealed its put some money into Quantum, a company that makes devices and software for DVB-H mobile broadcasting, although there’s no figure given on just how much Moto is investing.

It’s interesting to see investments in mobile TV that aren’t specifically targeted at mobile phones themselves, instead Quantum specialises in media-player type devices. However, the software it makes will doubtless interest mobile operators - it comes with the type of content protection software (read DRM) that record labels and movie studios are very keen on.

Whatever Motorola decides on handsets, it makes sense for Motorola to continue dipping its toe into mobile telly - it struck a deal with Nokia to co-operate on DVB-H development back in 2006 and it’s set top box business is still looking healthy. Perhaps there’s room for Moto to cross-breed Quantum’s mobile TV players with its own phones?

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Posted in Mobile TV | Comments

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