Mobile Search Firm 4Info Receives $10 Million Funding; Round Lead By Gannett
By Peggy Anne Salz - Tue 19 Jun 2007 09:09 PM PST
No surprises here. On the heels of the last weeks’ announcements that USA Today and 4Info have deepened ties to introduce mobile search services (paired with interactive advertising). Gannett Co., USA Today’s parent company, has lead a new round of funding, investing $10 million in 4Info. This fourth round of funding also included previous investors U.S. Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Sand Hill Capital joined the round as a new investor. 4Info will use the additional funding for product development and to expand its sales and distribution teams. Gannett has been a 4Info distribution partner since September 2005 and a strategic investor in the company since January 2006.
According to VentureBeat, the Palo Alto-based mobile search is set to serve a whopping 50 million ad units for the next quarter, at $50 dollars per thousand messages. This is equivalent to $50 CPM – and quite a feat considering the service only launched last month. (4Info has sold out its entire inventory. Do the math – as VentureBeat did – and this gives 4Info $2.5 million in revenue next quarter.) Against this backdrop, 4Info, which was valued at just under $100 million after the recent funding round, has raised nearly $28 million to date.
But it’s the business model that rings in the revenues. 4Info uses bulk SMS to deliver the text alerts (which now contain advertising), so it doesn’t have to pay operators for the service. No hungry mouths to feed in this value chain - 4Info splits the revenue 50-50 with the publisher. Zaw Thet, 4Info CEO, said the ads have a 15 to 20 percent reply rate. The company is also gearing up to announce next week that it has signed a deal with a big payments vendor — PayPal, Obopay or Google Checkout – and will introduce video ads into text messages.
Posted in: Media & Publishing, Mobile Adv & Mktg, Mobile Search, Money, VC M&A
