Mobile email and synchronization solutions provider Synchronica plc has raised an additional $3.9 million (1.97 million) to further fund its push into emerging markets with its mobile email and backup solutions. Synchronicas Mobile Gateway solution enables operators to offer push email on mass market handsets for both consumer and business users, while Mobile Backup offers a backup and restore service for the personal information stored on devices.
This latest placing of new shares to institutional and private investors is in addition to funding secured in January and brings the 2008 investment in the company to $7.5 million. The funds will be used primarily to expand Synchronicas sales and support functions in emerging markets, including the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The investment comes as Synchronica makes significant inroads into emerging markets. One mobile operator has already launched Mobile Gateway, and another 15 are currently trialling the software.
According to Synchronica, Mobile Gateway 3.5 works with more than 3 billion of the phones in use around the world today, including Smartphones and mass-market devices, making it ideal for emerging markets where low-cost handsets represent the vast majority of devices. With Mobile Gateway 3.5, the company says, even the most basic phones can receive email via an email-to-SMS gateway which shows header and body text in a text message.
Another benefit for subscribers in emerging markets, where PC penetration is low, is that they can now sign up for the service from their handset via WAP, removing the need to register using a PC.
Mobile Backup is also ideally suited to these regions, the company says, since the mobile phone is increasingly becoming the primary repository of choice for social and business contact information. Customers can sign up for Mobile Backup via a straightforward WAP interface or through a simple SMS signup procedure. A built-in client provisioning module automatically configures the phone.
Informa predicts that there will be 4.81 billion mobile phone subscribers by 2012, with the majority of the next billion subscribers coming from emerging markets where PC and fixed-line penetration is low, and consumers rely on their mobile phones for communication.
This new round of funding is important because it allows us to continue to strengthen our efforts in emerging markets, says Synchronica CEO, Carsten Brinkschulte. We have a robust pipeline of prospects in these regions and a first-rate solution that truly offers mobile email for everyone, regardless of which phone they use. With these funds, and our recent announcement of the strategic partnership with Brightstar to distribute Mobile Gateway in over 50 countries across six continents, we are well positioned to offer mobile operators a BlackBerry for the rest of us.