MONTREAL-Oz has secured $27.3 million in investment capital from VantagePoint Venture Partners, the Canadian mobile instant-messaging provider announced.
Oz hopes to expand its presence in the European and Asian markets with the new capital and plans to move into other mobile messaging markets. The privately held company has teamed with companies such as America Online Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! to facilitate always-on instant messaging on mobile devices.
“Based on the early success and market reaction from our existing deployments, we know that branded mobile IM in North America has the opportunity to become what SMS is in Europe,” said Skuli Mogensen, Oz’s president and chief executive officer. “The magnitude of this investment is a strong endorsement and recognition of Oz’s strategy and will allow us to continue to work closely with the IM providers, mobile operators and handset vendors to offer consumers innovative ways to keep them connected with friends, family and associates.”
