Sun Microsystems, Fremont Communications, Automobile Club of Southern California Invest in Kivera, Inc.
OAKLAND, Calif.--March 20, 2001--Kivera, Inc., a leading provider of location services for Web, wireless, and in-vehicle navigation applications has raised $19.8 million in a second round of funding.
Participants included Sun Microsystems, Inc., Fremont Communications, and the Automobile Club of Southern California (ACSC). This brings Kivera's total funding within the past 12 months to $29.9 million.
"We're extremely pleased to get the endorsement and business development support of these three market leaders. We look forward to continuing to advance our technological leadership in the location services market," said Clay Collier, Founder and CEO of Kivera. "We believe this event sends an important message to potential Kivera customers, particularly given the state of the equity markets today."
Kivera currently partners with Sun Microsystems in their Java(TM) technology-enabled car, with iPlanet E-commerce Solutions, the Sun/Netscape software alliance on wireless offerings, and with ACSC on key telematics initiatives. Other key customers include the American Automobile Association, BeVocal, and DENSO, which makes navigation units for Toyota, Lexus, Jaguar, and Cadillac cars.
"Kivera's location services module is an important component of the iPlanet(TM) Portal offering," said Brian Sutphin, Vice President of Strategic Investments at Sun Microsystems. "Kivera and Sun have worked hard to make the interface for adding location to wireless applications easy and seamless, while maintaining the scalability and reliability Sun's customers expect."
Peters Suh, Managing Director of Fremont Communications (formerly VP of Global Internet Services of Vodafone Group Plc ), added: "We are especially pleased to be working with Kivera because of its central role in adding the location awareness that wireless applications require. Kivera offers the kind of carrier-grade server solutions that heavy trafficked web and wireless sites need."
Thomas V. McKernan, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of ACSC, and Peters B. Suh, have been elected to Kivera's Board of Directors.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- The Network Is The Computer(TM) - has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. , to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to take their businesses to the nth. With $19.2 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com.
About Fremont Communications
Fremont Communications, a private equity fund based in San Francisco, invests in telecommunications companies in the U.S. and abroad. The group is distinguished by its deep industry knowledge and operating experience. Sam Ginn, retired chairman of Vodafone Group Plc, is Senior Managing Director of the fund. Fremont Communications is part of the Fremont Group, a private investment company with more than $13 billion in assets under management.
About Automobile Club of Southern California
The Automobile Club of Southern California, the largest affiliate of the AAA, has been serving members since 1900. Today, the Auto Club's members benefit by the organization's emergency road service, financial products, travel agency and trip planning services, automotive pricing, buying and financing programs, automotive testing and analysis and legislative advocacy. Information about these products and services is available on the Auto Club's web site at http://www.aaa-calif.com.
About Kivera
Kivera provides private-label location server software for partners and customers that want to make their own products and services location aware. Kivera's Location Server powers proximity searches (e.g. find me a restaurant within 2 miles of my location) and then delivers the results with maps and/or driving directions for web, wireless, and telematics applications.
Founded in 1997 and based in downtown Oakland, CA, Kivera powers leading consumer voice portals, in-vehicle applications, and web-based travel services. Kivera is one of a small group of companies that offer location services, including AOL/MapQuest , Vicinity , and MapInfo . Kivera's web site is http://www.kivera.com.
Kivera and The Art of Where are trademarks of Kivera, Inc.