InfoMove Secures $5.5 Million in Second Round of Funding
11 April 2000
InfoMove Secures $5.5 Million in Second Round of Funding; Infusion of Capital Includes Who's Who List of Strategic Corporate and Individual Investors
SEATTLE--April 11, 2000--InfoMove, the first company to fully integrate the advantages of the Internet with the car, today announced that it has closed a second round of "Series A Preferred" funding totaling $5.5 million.Organizations that contributed to this round of funding include The Broe Companies, BSQUARE Corporation , Encompass Europe, Garage.com, NTT-ME and Mitsui Comtek.
In addition, numerous individuals participated in the funding round, including many of the original angel investors in InfoMove.
"InfoMove's technology is at the crest of the wireless wave, developing functional applications for the mobile and driving environment," noted William Baxter, president and CEO of BSQUARE Corporation, provider of software solutions for the development and use of intelligent computing devices. "We wholeheartedly believe that these types of capabilities for the car will be the 'killer app' that accelerates mass-adoption of wireless mobile devices."
Greg Maffei, former CFO of Microsoft and current president & CEO of Worldwide Fiber, Inc. has invested in InfoMove, and also been named to its advisory board.
"The promise of wireless Internet applications and services for the car is compelling," said Peter Holland, president and CEO of InfoMove. "This strategic group of investors has a long history of seeing over the horizon and investing in companies and technology that will become part of everyone's daily life. This round will enable InfoMove to take our applications to the next level and deploy our system beyond the testing phase."
The additional capital will be used for investments in human capital, with a focus on additional engineering staff.
Specific terms of the investments are not being disclosed.
How InfoMove works
InfoMove's proprietary technology platform utilizes a direct interface with the car to deliver drivers and passengers Internet content and other vehicle-related services in a format that is tailored to the driving environment. The platform includes a vehicle monitoring system that sends information back to InfoMove's server and enables InfoMove to send the user maintenance and recall notices, as well as location-based advertising. Wireless Internet access will be provided through existing wireless networks, and in the future, through 3G and other standardized wireless networks. InfoMove delivers the following core GPS-based applications:
-- Real-time personalized, and geo-located traffic updates
-- Turn-by-turn, location based driving instructions
-- Real-time vehicle monitoring, diagnostic, maintenance alerts
and historical information
-- Profiled location-based advertising
-- Stocks, weather, news, city guides, shopping, and other
Internet information
-- Emergency assistance and concierge services
With InfoMove's applications, palm-sized and handheld PC devices as well as Internet-enabled cell phones, are transformed into auto PCs that customers can connect inside their cars, essentially turning cars into Internet "chauffeurs."
InfoMove has developed strategic relationships with industry leading organizations to create this unique platform that integrates GPS, wireless and Internet technologies. InfoMove will offer its service to Internet portals, hardware manufacturers, automotive companies and other organizations as private label and co-branded solutions. Consumers will be able to sign up for the first phase of the service in Q3 2000.
About InfoMove
InfoMove is the first company to integrate Internet, wireless and global positioning system (GPS) technologies to deliver a unique suite of personalized Internet content into the car on palm-sized and handheld PC devices and WAP cell phones. InfoMove services include real-time and predictive traffic, audible turn-by-turn directions, wireless vehicle diagnostics, maintenance alerts, emergency services, location-based advertising and text-to-speech enabled e-mail capabilities. InfoMove private labels its content and services to Internet portals, automotive suppliers and manufacturers, mobile computing device manufacturers, and vertical Internet destination sites.
InfoMove was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Seattle. It has strategic relationships with content providers, technology developers and device manufactures, such as BSQUARE, Clifford Electronics, Etak, University of Washington and Casio. The company is working with leading automotive and device manufacturers to deliver this unique solution to customers in Q3 2000.
For more information, visit the company's web site at www.infomove.com.