Smartner secures EUR 5m VC funding — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{“Enough to reach profitability”} Smartner secures EUR 5m VC funding

23 May 2003 at 13:54 GMT Ilya Poropudas

Mobile email and office solution provider Smartner Information Systems on Thursday announced a EUR 5 million funding commitment from European venture capital firms Amadeus Capital Partners, Eqvitec Partners, IT Provider, and Sitra. The investment takes Smartner’s total VC backing to over EUR 15 million. The funding round is being led by Amadeus Capital Partners, the existing investor in Commtag which as part of this deal was acquired by Smartner in an all share transaction. The Scandinavian investors behind Smartner—Eqvitec Partners, IT Provider and Sitra—are also investing in this follow-up round which will see Smartner to profitability, the company says. The company intends to use the additional funding to develop its product offering as well as to expand its sales organisation. Smartner was recently selected as a member of the Tornado100 listing of Europe’s most promising and innovative emerging companies in the technology sector. Andrea Traversone, Investment Manager of Amadeus Capital said, “The mobile data market is at an inflection point, triggered by the only truly successful corporate mobile application thus far: mobile email/PIM. The deployment of this application, which will accelerate with smartphones and PDAs, has only been held back by the absence of software middleware that meets the differing needs of operators and enterprises. Smartner’s products were the first to address this need and now, with Commtag’s push technology, Smartner can storm the market.” “This financing will allow us to grow our business and be even more aggressive in pursuing the opportunities that the market for mobile office solutions is opening up for us... We see it as a major achievement to have attracted this money in the current market,” said Robert Rasmus, CEO, Smartner. Andrea Traversone of Amadeus Capital Partners will join the Smartner board as a non-executive director.