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Tira Wireless to close new funds, raising next round in Q4
From VentureWire, July 7, 2003
TORONTO - Tira Wireless, a publisher of wireless Java applications for mobile phones, expects to close new funds in an extension of its Series A round soon and start its Series B round by the end of the year, Chris Erickson, recently appointed president and chief operations officer at the company, told VentureWire. Mr. Erickson declined to comment on exactly how much would be raised in the second tranche of the Series A, stating it would be in the area of a couple of million.
Brightspark Ventures and Flagship Ventures, which have already pumped $3 million into the company thus far, are expected to contribute the new money. The Series B round will target between $5 million and $10 million from venture capital firms and strategic investors, such as operators and handset manufacturers. The proceeds of the financing will be used to support sales, operations, and continued development. The company will also use the money to increase its headcount to about 75. New hires will be in adminstration, finance, and sales.
Based in Toronto, Tira Wireless employs 23. It has people in Europe, based in London, and plans to expand into Asia by the end of the year. The company made its first sales at the end of 2002. Since he assumed his position about two-months ago, Mr. Erickson has separated its operations into two divisions: Studios and Technologies. The studios divisions continues to handle developing and publishing Java applications for Java devices. The newer side of the business, Technologies, targets wireless carriers as customers as it has been formed to handles cross-platform development to enable one application to work on multiple types of handsets and networks and to oversee quality assurance.
Existing partner T-Mobile is the first company to use the services of Technologies. The carrier is now a beta user of Mobile Assure, using the services to certify Java applications. Last month, Tira Wireless said it entered into an agreement to sell the games of publicly held IVP Technology, a Toronto-based developer and distributor of mobile and Web software applications that does business as ActiveCore Technologies.
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