3GUpload Announces $20M Investment from VantagePoint Venture Partners; Company Acquires Mobile Community Site, Mophone, Plans to Create New Web-to-Mobile Community, Announces William Bryant as New CEO
"We saw community and social networking take off first hand from our experience with MySpace," said Eric Ver Ploeg, managing director at VantagePoint Venture Partners. "The next phase is to extend this concept to the mobile platform. 3GUpload has managed to create a thriving mobile entertainment business with no outside investment. By augmenting their impressive entrepreneurial team with proven management and the financial resources to grow the business, this company can maintain its leadership in the mobile entertainment and community space."
“We saw community and social networking take off first hand from our experience with MySpace”
William (Bill) Bryant will serve as chief executive officer (CEO) of the newly expanded 3GUpload. Bryant has had early and instrumental involvement in several leading software and Internet companies, serving variously as a founder, senior executive, investor and board member. He was previously CEO of Mophone, and a co-founder of Qpass, where he served as CEO and later chairman. He was also president of Netbot, Inc., and a partner with Atlas Venture, a large international venture capital firm with $2.5B under management.
"3GUpload has done a tremendous job of creating a passionate following in the mobile music arena," said Bryant. "With this unique combination of companies and the backing of VantagePoint, we'll build on that success to create the definitive web-to-mobile community."
3GUpload allows millions of members to discover new content, store personal files, meet new friends and connect to all things mobile. Members are able to select from more than 30,000 fully licensed music tones, polyphonic ringtones, voice tones and sound effects; screensavers and wallpaper; mobile games including adventure, arcade, board, card, exercise, fun, puzzle, racing, shooter and sports; and utilities and applications to enhance the web-to-mobile experience. Members can preview ringtones before uploading to "MyLocker" and downloading onto their phones. "Personal Files" in "My 3G" also allow members to upload their own pictures and ringtones onto mobile phones with 100 MB of free storage. 3GUpload encourages music fans to rate tracks so the company can then make recommendations on additional music tones to meet their tastes. The site also publishes a Top 100 downloads list to track the hottest ringtones.
"This substantial investment from VantagePoint is a huge validation that we're on the right track," said David Hosei, co-founder of 3GUpload. "We're incredibly excited about this opportunity to grow our business and provide more value to our users."
About 3GUpload
3GUpload (www.3gupload.com) is a leading web-to-mobile destination site for mobile entertainment. The direct-to-consumer service provides more than 30,000 ringtones, screensavers, games and other 3G applications to mobile customers nationwide, regardless of carrier. The site's robust community is a forum for millions of members to meet with friends to discuss music, entertainment, mobile technology, and more. 3GUpload offers a variety of subscription models ranging from $5.99-$13.99 that comes with a personalized cell phone locker for storage of favorite ringers and screensavers. The site supports 19 carriers nationwide, including all major operators.
About Mophone
mophone(TM), a peer-to-peer discovery and management platform for mobile content, is the most user-friendly and comprehensive mobile community service available today. mophone(TM) is the premier service offering of Mobile Operandi, a privately-held corporation headquartered in Vancouver, B.C. For more information about mophone, visit www.mophone.com.
About VantagePoint Venture Partners
VantagePoint Venture Partners is among the most active and successful venture firms in the world with more than $2.8 billion of capital under management. The Firm invests exclusively in technology driven companies and is organized around deep expertise and resources in five principal areas of interest: Software/Internet, CleanTech, Communications and Systems, Healthcare, and Semiconductors. VantagePoint is a multi-stage investor, investing in high growth businesses at all stages of development. The Firm believes in applying an active, hands-on and team oriented approach to businesses not only at the traditional early stage, but throughout a company's progression to scale. For more information, please visit www.vpvp.com.
