NEW YORK-New York City’s Silicon Alley has spawned MobileSpring Inc., an incubator for developing companies that deploy Web-based services to mobile communications devices.
Mark Caron, president and chief executive officer of MobileSpring, was a co-founder of Omnipoint Communications.
i-Hatch Ventures, a New York City venture-capital firm targeting early-stage Internet companies, is the leader of MobileSpring’s investment team. Chip Hatch, general partner and co-founder of i-Hatch, will serve on MobileSpring’s board of directors.
MobileSpring’s other investors comprise: Primedia Ventures, the corporate venture fund of Primedia Inc.; Venturehouse Group, led by Aether Systems Inc. co-founder Mark Ein; Impact Venture Partners; and Broadview Associates, an investment bank that is a major player internationally in mergers and acquisitions in the information technology, communications and media sectors.
Holt Thrasher, director of Broadview’s United States wireless practice, will be a member of MindSpring’s advisory board, as will Anders Brandt, CEO of made4net, Norway’s largest Internet incubator.
“Developing and deploying truly useful and ubiquitous mobile Internet services is quite complicated. In addition, the United States poses unique challenges given the 10 to 15 incompatible cellular, [personal communications services], paging, satellite and other network standards that support mobile data, as well as the many different kinds of mobile devices and operating systems in use,” Brandt said.
MobileSpring expects to spin off its first projects into separate companies later this year. It anticipates that many of these spin-offs will become joint ventures with established domestic and foreign companies which own strategic assets, like large customer bases and distribution channels.
