FUNDING: MobileAware, a Dublin-based software firm, has raised €7 million funding and taken on board a new investor, Bank of America Capital Partners, which will help it expand into the US marketplace.
The company, which develops mobile software for telecoms operators and other corporate enterprises, hopes to use the cash to bring it to profitability by the first or second quarter of 2003.
Mr David McGeough, chief executive of MobileAware, said this latest round of funding would see the firm through to profit if it hit its financial targets this year. The investment supported the firm's $20 million (€20.7 million) valuation achieved during its first funding in 2000 despite the current difficult market conditions, he added.
Mr McGeough said Bank of America Capital Partners was a "heavyweight investor" that previously had not been very active in Europe and the firm would now appoint Mr Ted McCafferty, chief investment officer at the bank, to the board of MobileAware.
Another new investor, AIB Equity, also participated in the round, along with the firm's existing investors - Intel Capital and Cross Atlantic Capital Partners.
Island Capital, the investment vehicle used by Mr Denis O'Brien, is also a significant shareholder in MobileAware.
Mr McGeough said the firm had spent the past 18 months engineering its software and would use the cash to change the focus towards sales and marketing. He said the firm now had the credibility among customers to generate sales in the European market. Partner programmes with vendors such as Nortel networks would also enable the firm to extend its presence into the US, he added.
MobileAware's software is based on open standards and enables mobile operators to build portals on which content providers can offer services to consumers. This technology is becoming increasingly important with the onset of next-generation mobile technology such as GPRS and 3G.
"We offer firms a classic I-Mode model, which has enabled Docomo to succeed," he said. Companies can put the content they want on the portal and take it off when required, he added.
Mr McGeough said the firm's software had proved itself through two deals with mobile phone operators in Portugal and Spain.
