Bertelsmann investments in German mobile community Qeep

by: admin Thursday, June 7th, 2007

Rating: roaring success

The German mobile internet start-up Blue Lion mobile has closed a multi-million euro A round with Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), the venture capital arm of the giant media company Bertelsmann.

Led by former executives from T-Mobile and Nintendo in Germany, Blue Lion mobile developed “Qeep” (pronounced kweep) and launched a beta version of it in the German market at the end of last year.

Qeep includes messaging, photo-blogging and the creation of photo albums, and multi-player gaming so members can play against each other in real-time. The company says that, “The new funding from BDMI will provide Blue Lion mobile with resources to execute its vision of providing a revolutionary new service to mass market mobiles at low cost, increasing the base of handsets it supports (at the moment it supports 70) and launching the Qeep service on all key European markets.”

Urs Cete, Principal at Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI) said, “Blue Lion mobile perfectly fits into our current portfolio. We do see great potential in services covering the demands of converging markets.”

Something is happening here. Coca-Cola, Swisscom (see today’s blogs below) and now Bertelsmann getting in on the mobile communities act, MySpace is starting to sound just a little dated.

www.bluelionmobile.com/index.php?id=21&L=1