Miyowa Raises US$8 Million in Additional Venture Capital Financing
26/06/2008 09:02
PR Newswire
PARIS and CUPERTINO, California, June 26 /PRNewswire/ --
- Investments From Techfund and Credit Agricole Private Equity
Validates Miyowa's Leadership in the Mobile Applications Market and Aids in
Expansion to the U.S. and Singapore
Miyowa, a dynamic global company providing compelling instant messaging
and presence enriched Mobile Web 2.0 technologies, today announced completion
of a second round of financing of US$8 million bringing the company's total
financing to date to US$12.7 million. The funding round was participated in by
Techfund, who funded Miyowa's first round of financing in September 2006, and
Credit Agricole Private Equity, a new investor. Combined with revenue derived
from increased mobile operator contract wins, the additional financing will
be used to accelerate commercialization of Miyowa's existing products, bring
to market a revolutionary enriched mobile instant messaging solution, and
expand operations into the U.S. and Asia.
"Global mobile usage patterns are changing. Mobile users now
want to have access to all of their social desktop PC applications anywhere
and at anytime," said Michel de Lempdes, investment director at Credit
Agricole Private Equity. "The unique technology of Miyowa answers the mobile
operators' needs as they look for new mobile web usages, made possible by the
launch and quick adoption of unlimited data subscriptions. We think Miyowa's
ability to offer innovative, new services in an unrestrictive fashion with
almost no infrastructure investment, places it in prime position to take
advantage of this market change, and provide the mobile applications that
operators are seeking."
Founded in April 2003 by Pascal Lorne and Francois Colon,
Miyowa develops rich media mobile applications that provide mobile operators
and handset makers with premium service offerings over their data plans and
devices without the entering of restrictive relationships with social
networks and IM providers, and mobile users with a superior mobile
experience. Based in Paris, Miyowa has been profitable since its second year,
and was the fastest growing company in the mobile instant messaging industry
in 2007, winning more operator contracts than any other competitor.
"Miyowa's previous success in the mobile instant messaging
market in Europe provides them with a unique opportunity to further unify
instant messaging, presence and social networks for mobile consumption," said
Kurt Keilhacker, venture partner of Techfund North America. "Miyowa is
becoming an international success because it understands the future of
wireless and is developing a technology roadmap that allows its partners to
profit from it."
Miyowa's new funding will be used to further expand their
operations into the U.S. and Asia, spearheaded by the opening of offices in
Cupertino, CA and Singapore. Sergio De Acha, the senior vice president of
sales and business development at Miyowa, comes to the company from ACCESS
Systems Americas Inc., to lead the U.S. expansion and establish traction with
U.S. mobile carriers and handset developers. The company's commitment to the
U.S. market is further underscored by the company's CEO, Pascal Lorne's
relocation to the U.S. for the near term to ensure the company's direction is
in line with the U.S. market's needs.
The Singapore office will be headed by Tom Huang, the vice
president for Asia Pacific sales, who will look to build on the immediate
successes realized in Asia with the winning of a mobile operator contract in
2007.
"After five exciting years, Miyowa has proven that instant
messaging can be a global success on mobile devices. This new financing
further validates Miyowa's position as the worldwide leader in the mobile
instant messaging market and places us in position to capitalize on the new
opportunities the mobile applications market presents," said Pascal Lorne,
CEO at Miyowa. "The market is entering a new phase where convergence,
presence and social networks will become key in next generation mobile
applications. With the new financing from Techfund and Credit Agricole
Private Equity, and the addition of Sergio De Acha and Tom Huang to lead our
U.S. and Asia expansion efforts, Miyowa will look to address these market
needs, and deploy our mobile innovations globally."
About Miyowa
Established in 2003, Miyowa is a dynamic global company whose
next generation solutions enable service providers to liberate their
networks, deliver aggregated rich content and services to end users. A Red
Herring Top 100 company, Miyowa's award winning technology is innovative and
proven, and relied on by leading mobile operators around the world,
processing over 3 million interactions per day. Cited as the global industry
leader for Mobile IM, it is also number 1 in Mobile Messaging Clients.
Miyowa created the first handset independent universal
end-to-end client messaging technology (MoveMessenger(TM)), compliant with
all major existing standards and systems and provides mobile operators and
communities with a white-labeled, scalable range of Mobile Web 2.0 Instant
messaging related content and services. http://www.miyowa.com
Contact: Yann Mondon ' Miyowa, Phone number: +33(0)6-30-51-22-94, Email: yann@retinapr.com
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