Saw-You
Completes Funding Round With Benchmark Capital
Released on
= March 23, 2005, 2:35 am
Press Release
Author = Indoctrimat
Industry = Financial
Press Release
Summary = Glasgow & London UK, March 23rd 2005. Mobile social
networking company Saw-You Ltd., creators of the 'Weemee' Intelligent
Digital Identity (IDI), today announced it has completed a new round
of investment, securing multi-million dollar backing from the European
fund of Benchmark Capital, one of the world's leading venture firms
for advanced technologies.
Press Release
Body = The investment will be used by Saw-You to expand its global
presence into new markets throughout Europe the Middle East &
Africa (EMEA), North
America and Asia Pacific.
The company
plans to double the size of it's workforce in the UK quickly, while
creating new business development teams in other territories. Saw-You
plans to retain all of the creative research and &development
functions within their Glasgow headquarters.
Saw-You was
created in 1999 by Mike Kinsella and John McGuire. The company received
its first institutional funding in 2001 from Interactive Telecom
Solutions.
Saw-You is the
creator of the 'Weemee', one of the most popular intelligent digital
identity (IDI) services in the world. Users create a customised
cartoon version of themselves – their Weemee – which
can be used to represent them online or on their mobile phone. Saw-You's
patented technology allows users to find others based on their location
or physical description, without having to swap any specific contact
details.
The system has
already been a huge success in many countries around the world,
with over 3,500,000 Weemees created in the UK alone. Weemees are
now integrated into
many of the world's leading online and mobile service providers,
with companies such as MSN, Friends Reunited and Vodafone in the
United Kingdom, as well as MSN in Spain and Benelux and Classmates
in countries across Europe. The company has also completed a number
of agreements with some of the world's largest Internet service
providers (ISP's), mobile network operators and handset manufacturers.
More information regarding these agreements will be made within
the next several weeks.
Benchmark Capital
is an early-stage venture firm which has built a global reputation
for its partnerships with leading technology companies. Its portfolio
includes market leading organizations such as online auction site
eBay, Sulake (the Habbo Hotel game company), Betfair, Alphyra, to
name a few.
Mike Kinsella,
the chief executive officer of Saw-You, says, “We are delighted
to have secured this funding with a company of Benchmark's reputation
and experience.
The investment will allow Saw-You to capitalise on the excellent
progress we have made over the past two years and expand on a global
level into a number of very
significant and rapidly growing territories. In the last twelve
months Glasgow has achieved a reputation as the most exciting place
in the world to find the best new music. We want to reflect this
on the Net and make the Weemee the next big thing in the mobile
and online world.”
Barry Maloney,
partner at Benchmark Capital, says, “Weemee is proof that
injecting emotion, personalisation and fun into MMS is the way forward.
We are very excited to be investing in Saw You and are confident
that it will continue to enjoy great success.”
ENDS
Saw-You
Founded by Mike Kinsella and John McGuire in March 2000, Saw-You
is pioneer in advanced mobile Community. The company has patented
a number of key technologies
relating to messaging based on physical descriptions. This allows
Saw-You users, to search for specified characteristics and exchange
messages (SMS, MMS etc.) with people seen in social environments
such as clubs, pubs, gigs etc. Accessed online or through mobile
phone handsets, Saw-You delivers a community that is growing at
half a million users per month.
Saw-You has
been recognized by a number of leading publications and services
as one of the most exciting new services for mobile phones in the
world today. Fortune
magazine recently awarded the company the 'Coolest International
Business' award.
Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs
build great technology companies focused on long-term growth. Benchmark’s
partners take an intensive, hands-on, team-oriented, approach to
venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the
firm’s portfolio companies. Benchmark’s portfolio includes
franchise companies such as Alphyra (the leading pan European electronic
payments provider), Betfair (the world’s largest online betting
company), eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), Juniper Networks (Nasdaq: JNPR),
MySQL (the leading open source
database business, founded in Sweden) and Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT).
Managing more
than $2.7 billion in committed venture capital, Benchmark focuses
on investing in entrepreneurs with original ideas. Since arriving
in Europe in May
2000, Benchmark has made more than 30 investments across a variety
of market sectors and geographies. The $375m raised by Benchmark
Europe II follows Benchmark’s first
European fund of $500m.
For more information
on Benchmark, visit its website at www.benchmark.com.
Contact:
Mike Kinsella
CEO
mike@Saw-You.com
Press
Brian Baglow
Indoctrimat PR
M: +44 (0) 7747 792247
brian@indoctrimat.com
Nick Bishop
Mantra (Benchmark Capital)
020 79077800
nbishop@mantra-pr.com
Web Site = http://www.saw-you.co.uk
Contact Details
= Lorraine Baglow
Indoctrimat HQ
6 Green Park
Kinross
07747 867 225
lorraine@indoctrimat.com
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