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.