Followap Solutions produced a location-based instant messaging platform for cellular operators. In its previous financing round, the company raised $10 million.
Siemens International investment arm Mustang Ventures has invested $2 million in Israeli start-up Followap Solutions. Followap produced a location-based instant messaging platform for cellular operators.
The investment follows a February 2001 cooperation agreement between Followap and Siemens’s cellular division. Under the agreement, Siemens will sell iFollow, Followap’s flagship product, to leading cellular operators and install the product in existing and future cellular systems it provides to its customers.
Followap’s solutions enable mobile phone users to receive messages instantaneously and manage a list of friends and e-mail addresses using different protocols, such as SMS, I-mode WAP, and voice messages. The system is also capable of identifying which cellular subscribers are available for communication in real time.
In its first and previous financing round, Followap raised $10 million. Carmel Ventures led that round with a $5.2 million investment, followed by Star Ventures ($2.8 million) and Koor Corporate Venture Capital and the Israel Corporation, each of which added another $1 million to its $1 million seed stage investment. Koor Corporate Venture Capital’s investment was its first since its founding in early 2000.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on June 5, 2001