ShoZu (United Kingdom) - Jan 2008

unquote
01 January 2008

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SEB Venture Capital has led a $12m series-C funding round for mobile phone application developer ShoZu, taking a 15% stake in the business. SEB committed $5m to the financing, with existing investors Atlas Ventures, Crescendo Ventures and TTP Ventures also participating. The new investor was attracted to the deal, which was sourced through existing backer TLcom Capital, due to the successful relationships the business has been able to generate with mobile phone manufacturers. Frank Kelcz, investment director at SEB, explains: “ShoZu is the only mobile social media company that has secured global pre-installation agreements with multiple handset manufacturers. That fact alone positions the firm for substantial growth.” The new capital will be used to finance working capital requirements and continue the roll out of the company’s technology, specifically by cementing its relationship with advertising agencies.

Company

London-based ShoZu has developed a mobile phone application that allows users to upload to social networking sites from their handsets. In November the company launched services that allow users to upload Flickr albums, Facebook pages and personal blogs via picture messaging simultaneously. The software is available on manufacturer’s websites, with more than 100,000 downloads on average a month. The company was founded as Cognima in 2001 and currently employs 55 staff across offices in the UK, US, France and Spain.

People

Nigel Pilkington led the investment for SEB, with Frank Kelcz joining the board.

Advisers

Equity - Wilmer Hale, Eric Bernhardt (Legal)

Sourced from: UK & Ireland unquote" 362 (Feb 2008)