BUDGET 2000
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
COMMENTARY
GOVT&ECONOMY
Y2K: BIZ FEATURES
INDIA & THE WTO
CREDIT POLICY
BIZ IN THE USA
CARS & MOBIKES
MANAGEMENT
CASE STUDY
BIZ-QUIZ
USEFUL INFO
ARCHIVES
NEWSLINKS
SEARCH REDIFF

Unimobile gets $15 million funding from VCs

Fakir Chand in Bangalore

Unimobile.com, the US-based Internet mobile company, formerly known as Gray Cell, with its only design and software development centre located in Bangalore, has received an overwhelming response to the second round of funding from venture capitalists to the tune of $15 million, though it sought to raise only $4 million.

Buoyed up by the demand for its equity, the less-than year-old company is chalking out plans to go in for the third round of funding to the tune of $40-50 million by the year-end in the run-up to listing on the US Stock Exchanges such as Nasdaq.

Upbeat over the response, Unimobile.com's new president and CEO Vasudev Bhandarkar told rediff.com that the mobile company would retain the entire $15 million when it closes the deal by the middle of April. Each share was priced at $2.40.

"We have received commitments from a consortium led by Comventures, and other investors like Net Angels Fund, Sonera Telecom, the renowned Finnish telecom operator," Bhandarkar affirmed.

The company raised $1.7 million last year in its earlier avatar as Gray Cell.

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Funding Company, Walden and Draper International has also participated in the second round.

According to founder and chairman T S Reddy, the over four-times subscription is on account of the company's market valuation at $35 million, seven times the valuation of $5 million it had when it went for the first round of funding.

The company plans to invest the funds being raised in extending its product versions and services across the world to reach the 1 million consumer mark by the year-end. In the run-up to expand its base, Unimobile.com has already launched an aggressive and global partnership programme with a consumer-acquisition focus.

Operating the Unimobile Virtual Network platform, a 7-day-a-week, 24-hours-a-day monitored service forming the backbone to deliver wireless content and other value-added services to its users, the company offers its customers virtual control over when and where they should receive their messages.

"As on date, Unimobile works on over 400 million wireless devices the world over, offering instant messaging, personalised e-mail, and Internet content delivery, largely on cell phones, pagers, PDAs and WAP phones," said Vishal Gupta, director (product operations and business development).

Claimed to be the world's first Internet mobile product, Unimobile is a free desktop tool that can be downloaded easily by end-users as well as the service operators for short messaging services or SMS and other value-added services. It enables the consumer to access information from the Internet delivered to a wireless device of one's choice.

The product is being used in over 100 countries by 330 operators, and thousands of high-profile customers. Its successful beta launch last August provided an impetus to Unimobile Product Development Centre in India to come out with an upgraded version (2.0) to enable two-way mobile instant messaging on any wireless device as well as any desktop.

The new version also offers third-party e-mail based services integration, group broadcasts and overtones. "With talent from India, money from the Silicon Valley in the US, and connected to wireless gateways globally, the company is poised to emerge as a global-scale success," a company official said.

Business