Funambol Secures $12.5 Million in Venture Funding
I mentioned Funambol last week with their alternative open source solution for the iPhone. Well yesterday they announced that they have secured another $12.5 million in Series B funding, led by mobile-focused venture capital firm Nexit Ventures. Castile Ventures participated as a new investor and was joined by existing investors, Walden International and HIG Ventures.They Say: The new financing brings Funambol’s total funding to $25 million. The company 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. Nexit partner, Michel Wendell, joins Funambol’s board of directors and Castile general partner, Carl Stjernfeldt, joins the board as an observer.
“This substantial investment validates our technology, business model and market direction,” said Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol CEO. “With this funding, we have strengthened our financial resources to enable us to add geographic support in global markets where we see significant demand for mass market open source push email.”
There are 3.3 billion mobile phones and two billion email accounts in the world but less than two percent of people access email on their mobile phone. This represents a large untapped revenue opportunity for service providers, portals and mobile operators. Until now, mobile email has required high-end smartphones, costly fees and complex setup. Funambol’s basis on open source and ad-funded push email and PIM sync capabilities helps companies in the mobile ecosystem deliver new wireless services and monetize mass market users.
Funambol provides open source push email and PIM sync solutions for more than 1.5 billion mobile devices, including phones from Apple, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and others. Mobile operators and service providers around the globe, including Earthlink in the U.S. and 1&1 in Europe, have adopted the commercial version of the company’s software.
In addition, Funambol was recently selected by AOL to help with synchronization for AOL’s online and mobile mail services using Funambol’s open source software and its scalable synchronization platform. Recent mobile advertising partnerships include Amobee Media Systems and Smaato, with others expected in the coming months.
You can read more here on Funambol’s Website.
We say: Its funny, Nokia’s Tom Farrell was making the same point yesterday about how many email accounts there were and how few used them when I interviewed him yesterday at the launch of the Nokia E71/E66 (I will be posting the video soon!)
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