There were several fundings that in this space that caught my eye this week:
First, “Qualcomm, Carlyle Invest $3M in Chinese Content Company: Wireless communications company Qualcomm and private equity firm Carlyle Group have invested $3 million in Beijing-based Enorbus Technologies. Enorbus is a leading wireless application publisher and developer of games and entertainment content for wireless phones in China. Press Release
Second, KongZhong, which delivers content via mobile handsets in China, made its debut in the U.S. stock market on last Friday where they managed to raise $100 million from U.S. investors. The interest is in part due to KongZhong’s head start in positioning itself to deliver rich-media content via mobile phones.
Third, Mobile messaging infrastructure services company mBlox has raised $10M (USD) in VC funding. The investors of this latest round include Bank of America Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Novus Ventures, Duff Ackerman Goodrich, Entrepreneurs Fund and Avanti Capital Ltd. 160Characters
This last investment is the one that threw me a bit. I’m not sure if this is the result of poor information, overhang or exuberant optimism. The messaging platform (SMSC) space in Europe is very competitive with “Gorillas” like Nokia offering solutions to the operators. The solution would have to be very appealing for Vodafone to decide to use their platform, plus with more innovative areas to explore (like the first two examples) I find it hard to believe they are investing in what is, basically, a commodity.
[Update]
I left off JamDat , another American mobile content company. They have filed for an $86 million IPO.
Jason Ball 