Miyowa raises $8 Mn in additional VC financing

Paris: Miyowa, a global company providing instant messaging and presence enriched Mobile Web 2.0 technologies, has announced completion of a second round of financing of $8 million bringing the company's total financing to date to $12.7 million. The funding round was participated in by Techfund, who funded Miyowa's first round of financing in September 2006, and Credit Agricole Private Equity, a new investor. Combined with revenue derived from increased mobile operator contract wins, the additional financing will be used to accelerate commercialization of Miyowa's existing products, bring to market a revolutionary enriched mobile instant messaging solution, and expand operations into the U.S. and Asia.

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"Global mobile usage patterns are changing. Mobile users now want to have access to all of their social desktop PC applications anywhere and at anytime," said Michel de Lempdes, investment director at Credit Agricole Private Equity. "The unique technology of Miyowa answers the mobile operators' needs as they look for new mobile web usages, made possible by the launch and quick adoption of unlimited data subscriptions. We think Miyowa's ability to offer innovative, new services in an unrestrictive fashion with almost no infrastructure investment, places it in prime position to take advantage of this market change, and provide the mobile applications that operators are seeking."

Founded in April 2003 by Pascal Lorne and Francois Colon, Miyowa develops rich media mobile applications that provide mobile operators and handset makers with premium service offerings over their data plans and devices without the entering of restrictive relationships with social networks and IM providers, and mobile users with a superior mobile experience. Based in Paris, Miyowa has been profitable since its second year, and was the fastest growing company in the mobile instant messaging industry in 2007, winning more operator contracts than any other competitor.

"Miyowa's previous success in the mobile instant messaging market in Europe provides them with a unique opportunity to further unify instant messaging, presence and social networks for mobile consumption," said Kurt Keilhacker, managing partner of Techfund Europe. "Miyowa is becoming an international success because it understands the future of wireless and is developing a technology roadmap that allows its partners to profit from it."

Miyowa's new funding will be used to further expand their operations into the U.S. and Asia, spearheaded by the opening of offices in Cupertino, CA and Singapore. Sergio De Acha, the senior vice president of sales and business development at Miyowa, comes to the company from ACCESS Systems Americas, to lead the U.S. expansion and establish traction with U.S. mobile carriers and handset developers. The company's commitment to the U.S. market is further underscored by the company's CEO, Pascal Lorne's relocation to the U.S. for the near term to ensure the company's direction is in line with the U.S. market's needs.