Unicell Advanced Cellular Solutions has closed a $2.5 million financing round, at a company value of $7 million. Kardan Israel Ltd. (TASE:KRIS) controlled by chairman Joseph Grunfeld, led the round, joined by media and communications businesspeople, who have received 35% of Unicell’s shares.
Unicell also announced plans to acquire Israeli and foreign value added services companies, which could be additional growth engines for the company.
Unicell CEO Nimrod Kimchi said, “The financing round is intended to substantially expand the company’s overseas marketing activities, including in Germany, the US, and Eastern Europe, by exploiting Kardan’s broad platform in these countries.”
Founded in 2002 as a subsidiary of Broad Digital, Unicell develops advanced wireless services, including short message service (SMS), wireless surfing services, content portals, multimedia messaging services (MMS), and advanced 3G video applications. The company’s solutions and services include corporate cellular data solutions (UniBiz), Premium content services and billing (Unifun), interactive media solutions (Unimedia), mobile marketing, intelligent mobile surfing (Unisurf), and turnkey solutions for operators and media companies.
Kardan head of telecommunications division Amit Ben-Yehuda said, “Kardan believes that cellular content services will become a strategic field in the coming years. After a thorough examination of the Israeli market, and a study of competing companies, we chose to invest in Unicell.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on January 23, 2006