PALO ALTO, CA -- 05/15/08 --
Mozes, Inc., (
www.mozes.com), the interactive
mobile marketing service that connects people to what they love, has
announced that it has raised $11.5 million in Series B funding. The
financing was led by Maveron LLC, the Seattle-based venture capital firm
with participation from existing backers North Bridge Venture Partners and
Norwest Venture Partners.
Mozes' Series B funding follows a $5 million Series A round, which was
announced in February of 2007 and supported the company's initial launch.
Since then, more than 1.4 million people have participated in a
Mozes-powered campaign, including over 600,000 participants having opted-in
to a Mozes "mob" (mobile list), in order to receive ongoing exclusive text
and voice messages directly from artists such as Avril Lavigne, Nelly,
Rascal Flatts and Chris Brown.
The funding will be used by Mozes to expand its leading position in the
music industry, and to deploy the service in other markets, from sports and
entertainment to retailers. Built on an advanced, integrated platform
combining text messaging, voice and the web, Mozes provides marketers with
easy-to-use tools to make campaigns and live events interactive using
mobile phones, while delivering an engaging and trusted experience for
participants.
"We are delighted to have Maveron join Mozes as an investor and welcome the
firm's deep experience and expertise in consumer markets," said Mozes CEO
Dorrian Porter. "Combined with the support of our existing investors, we
can expand our success in music and deliver on our vision of becoming the
world's most widely used mobile service."
"Mozes is at the forefront of an explosive market and sets the standard for
how brands can engage a wide consumer audience on a sustained basis through
mobile marketing campaigns," said Jonathan Fram, a Managing Partner of
Maveron who will be joining Mozes' board of directors. "We are excited by
the Company's vision and industry leading achievements to date and look
forward to contributing to the establishment of Mozes as an enduring
consumer brand."
Maveron's portfolio has included investments in widely recognized consumer
brands such as drugstore.com, eBay, Pinkberry, Potbelly Sandwich Works, The
Motley Fool and Shutterfly.
About Mozes, Inc.
Founded in 2005, Mozes is the interactive mobile marketing service that
connects people to what they love. Comprehensive mobile campaigns that
incorporate voice, text and web are built on an easy-to-use marketing
platform and are further extended by online widgets that integrate a mobile
campaign with online properties like MySpace and Facebook. Using Mozes
anyone -- from bands to fans to brands -- can make their campaigns,
promotions or events more powerful and interactive using the mobile phone
and the web. Initially focused on the music industry, Mozes is used by
nearly 4,000 major label and independent artists, including Chris Brown,
Colbie Caillat, Daughtry, Nelly and Rascal Flatts. Mozes is
permission-based, spam-free and cost-free to consumers. The desirability of
reaching consumers via cell phone is growing according to eMarketer which
projects U.S. spending on mobile marketing to roughly double this year to
$1.5 billion, and reach $4.4 billion by 2011. Subscribe to the Mozes blog
for updates at www.mozes.com/blog.
About Maveron
Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Maveron LLC is a leading venture
capital firm. Founded in 1998 by Dan Levitan and Howard Schultz, Maveron's
mission is to help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams of building great
consumer businesses. Maveron invests up to approximately $20 million in its
portfolio companies and looks to partner with a small number each year. For
more information about Maveron, visit www.maveron.com.
About Norwest Venture Partners (NVP)
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture capital firm that has
actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more
than 45 years. NVP focuses on investments in information technology
including: Internet, media and consumer, software, services, enterprise and
communications systems and semiconductor/components. The firm currently
manages more than $2.5 billion in venture capital out of its office in Palo
Alto, California.
NVP has funded over 400 companies in the U.S. since inception. Some of the
firm's recent investments and transactions include Adventity, Airespace
(acquired by Cisco Systems), deCarta, DoubleFusion, Jigsaw, KACE, mBlox,
Omneon, Open-Silicon (acquired by Unicorn Investment Bank), Persistent
Systems, Rackspace, SideStep (acquired by Kayak), Spinnaker Networks
(acquired by Network Appliance), Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola)
Yatra, and Yipes (acquired by Reliance/Flag Telecom). NVP has also funded
such market leaders as Actel Corporation, Cerent (acquired by Cisco
Systems), Documentum, Extreme Networks, Forte Software (acquired by Sun
Microsystems), PeopleSoft and Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM). For more
information, please visit www.nvp.com.
About North Bridge Venture Partners
North Bridge Venture Partners is an active, bi-coastal, early stage venture
capital fund based in the Waltham, Massachusetts and San Mateo, California.
For more information, please visit www.nbvp.com.
Andrea Roesch
Email Contact
650 644 1700
