Sources inform “Globes” that Israeli start-up Mobilitec recently signed an agreement with international cellular provider Vodafone Group (NYSE, LSE, FSE: VOD). The agreement is worth over $20 million over the next three years, making it Mobilitec’s largest-ever contract.
Under the agreement, the Vodafone Group, which serves 100 million cellular subscribers to its networks in 28 countries, will deploy Mobilitec’s mPower platform on half of its networks. Deployment will begin in four European countries. Mobilitec declined to respond to the report.
Mobilitec, founded in March 2000 by president and CEO Ophir Holder, CTO Yoad Gidron, and VP engineering Haim Teichholtz, has a development center in Haifa, and a marketing branch in San Mateo, California. The company developed a platform to supply and manage mobile phone applications, which are run on Java programming language in the initial stage. The platform operates on the J2ME global standard for mobile devices. This platform facilitates streaming of dynamic content to these devices on demand. Before the deal with Vodafone, Mobilitec signed deals to supply its product, jointly with Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), to Singapore cellular provider M1, CSL of Hong Kong, and DTAC of Thailand.
Mobilitec has raised $13 million to date. The company’s most recent financing round, in which it raised $10 million at a $30 million company value, after money, was completed in October 2001. Company investors include Lucent Venture Partners, the venture capital fund of Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU); SingTel Ventures, Singapore Telecom’s investment fund; Sun Microsystems; and the AIG Orion Fund.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on December 30, 2002