ViVOtech Closes $22.5 Million In Series C Round of Funding.Investments Validate Growing Market For Contactless and NFC NFC abbr. National Football Conference Mobile Phone Payments SANTA CLARA Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. , Calif. -- Silicon Valley-based ViVOtech has announced that they have closed their Series C round of funding for a total of $22.5 million from strategic investors in key sectors including the financial, retail, and wireless markets, and existing investors. ViVOtech is the acknowledged leader and has pioneered the commercial development of contactless and mobile phone payment technologies including contactless read/write terminals for wide variety of merchants, and Near Field Communication (NFC)-related mobile phone payment wallet, promotions management, and over the air (OTA (Over The Air) Refers to any wireless system such as AM/FM radio and network television that uses open space as its transmission medium. ) card provisioning infrastructure software, that will allow millions of users around the world to make purchases using their mobile phones. As previously announced in May, leading ViVOtech's Series C round was First Data Corp. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : FDC FDC - Floppy Disk Controller ). First Data is joined by new investors NCR (NCR Corporation, Dayton, OH, www.ncr.com) A technology company specializing in financial terminal transactions, retail systems and data warehousing. Until the late 1990s, NCR was heavily invested in the hardware side of the industry, known worldwide as a major manufacturer of computers (see related announcement today), Miven Venture Partners and one undisclosed Fortune 500 company. * First Data Corp is a leading provider of electronic commerce and payment solutions for businesses worldwide. From locations in 39 countries around the world, First Data serves over 5 million merchant locations, 1,900 card issuers and their customers, and powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses around the world to buy goods and services In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility (unless the "good" is a "bad"). It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax. using virtually any form of payment. * NCR is a leading global technology company helping businesses build stronger relationships with their customers. NCR's Teradata[R] data warehouses, ATMs, retail systems, self-service solutions and IT services provide Relationship Technology[TM] that maximizes the value of customer interactions and helps organizations create a stronger competitive position * Miven Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm with a primary focus on investing consumer related technology companies. Founded in 2005, the company has invested globally with its key strength in Asia and North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . Return investors in the Series C round included Alloy Ventures, DFJ DFJ Dysfunkshun Junkshun (Austin, Texas band) Gotham, Draper Fisher Jurveston, and Nokia Growth Partners. "This funding underpins our strategic development plans and will provide the capital required to execute successfully on our ongoing product development, partnering and international expansion strategies," said Michael Mullagh, ViVOtech's Chief Executive Officer. "Over the last six months we have seen strong interest from multiple players in the financial, retail, and wireless industries. We are forming key strategic partnerships with these new investors which we are confident will help ViVOtech to maintain its market leadership and shape the future of contactless and NFC mobile payment applications and technologies." Near Field Communication (NFC): NFC is a 13.5 MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. radio frequency based technology that provides up to 4 inches of wireless connectivity between two enabled devices. NFC technology allows mobile devices to electronically interact with point of sale payment systems, ATMs, kiosks, smart posters, promotions, and self-service check-in systems. ABI Abi (ā`bī) [short for Abijah], in the Bible, King Hezekiah's mother. (Application Binary Interface) A specification for a specific hardware platform combined with the operating system. Research* recently forecasted that NFC chips will be embedded in over 20% of all mobile handsets that are expected to ship worldwide by 2012. Series C Investors include: Alloy Ventures have been providing venture capital to companies since 1977. The company's primary areas of investment are in information technology and life science industries. Alloy Ventures currently has more than $750 million under management. For more information about Alloy Ventures, please visit www.alloyventures.com. Draper Fisher Jurvetson Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with affiliate offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $4.5 billion in capital commitments. has created a global network of affiliated venture funds with over $4.5 billion in capital commitments and offices in the major technology centers around the world. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the firm has proven expertise in identifying and helping extraordinary entrepreneurs who want to change the world. For more information about Draper Fisher Jurvetson, please visit www.dfj.com. First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC) is a leading provider of electronic commerce and payment solutions for businesses worldwide. Serving over 5 million merchant locations, 1,900 card issuers and their customers, First Data powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses around the world to buy goods and services using virtually any form of payment. The company's portfolio of services and solutions includes merchant transaction processing Updating the appropriate database records as soon as a transaction (order, payment, etc.) is entered into the computer. It may also imply that confirmations are sent at the same time. Transaction processing systems are the backbone of an organization because they update constantly. services; credit, debit, private-label, gift, payroll and other prepaid card offerings; fraud protection and authentication solutions; receivables management solutions; electronic check acceptance services through TeleCheck; as well as Internet commerce and mobile payment solutions. The company's STAR Network offers PIN-secured debit acceptance at 2 million ATM and retail locations. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com. DFJ Gotham Ventures, located in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , is a Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliate fund with over $100 million in assets. DFJ Gotham is focused on backing exceptional entrepreneurs in a variety of IT sectors. DFJ Gotham shares the knowledge, resources and contacts of over 15 DFJ-network funds. For more information about DFJ Gotham, please visit www.dfjgotham.com. Miven Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm with a primary focus on investing consumer related technology companies. Founded in 2005, the company has invested globally with its key strength in Asia and North America. NCR Corporation (company) NCR Corporation - Electronics company mainly active in the midrange server market. NCR was founded 1884 as National Cash Register Company. It joint the computer industry in th 1950s. (NYSE: NCR) is a leading global technology company helping businesses build stronger relationships with their customers. NCR's Teradata[R] data warehouses, ATMs, retail systems, self-service solutions and IT services provide Relationship Technology[TM] that maximizes the value of customer interactions and helps organizations create a stronger competitive position. Based in Dayton, Ohio Dayton is a city in southwestern Ohio, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Montgomery County. As of the 2005 census estimate, the population of Dayton was 158,873. , NCR (www.ncr.com) employs approximately 29,500 people worldwide. Nokia Growth Partners is a diversified institutional investment management firm headquartered in Menlo Park Menlo Park. 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 28,040), San Mateo co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. Electronic equipment and aerospace products are manufactured in the city. Menlo College and a Stanford Univ. research institute are there. 2 Uninc. , CA. It is fully funded by Nokia with US$200M under management. Nokia Growth Partners invests globally directly into growth stage technology companies as a Venture Capital Fund and participates as a limited partner in select venture capital and private equity funds with its Fund of Funds Fund of Funds A mutual fund that invests in other mutual funds. Notes: For example, an investor would select a general risk profile and the fund-of-funds manager would pick underlying investments from a range of products managed by external managers. program. Nokia Growth Partners is funded by Nokia to provide superior returns and investments into companies, firms and people that are changing the face of mobility, communications and the Internet. http://www.nokiagrowthpartners.com About ViVOtech ViVOtech (www.vivotech.com) is the market leader in Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payments, promotions, and over the air (OTA) provisioning infrastructure software, transaction management software, NFC smart posters, and Contactless terminals These innovative solutions allow millions of consumers to make Contactless payments with radio frequency-enabled credit/debit cards, key fobs, and NFC mobile phones. ViVOtech's products are used by some of the most prominent retailers in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Currently, with more than 280,000 units in 25 countries, ViVOtech's products are in use at movie theaters, fast food restaurants (QSR QSR Quick Service Restaurant QSR QoS (Quality of Service) Satisfaction Rate QSR Quality System Regulations QSR Quality Status Report QSR Quality System Review QSR Quarterly Status Report QSR Quality System Requirement ), casual dining establishments, convenience stores, gas stations, drug stores, grocery stores, buses, taxicabs, kiosks and vending machines, enabling a wide variety of businesses to accept Contactless/NFC payments and promotions. In 2007, ViVOtech was named #1 in New ABI Research* Contactless reader ranking. ViVOtech was also recognized as Top Contactless Payment Technology Vendor in Aberdeen Group's "Retail Contactless Payment Report". In 2006, ViVOtech was honored with a MasterCard "Best Vendor Partner Award" as the first vendor to deliver stand-alone Contactless readers for MasterCard PayPass customers. In 2005, ViVOtech received the prestigious Frost & Sullivan technology award for its role in transforming the Contactless payment industry and the first annual ETA Technology Innovation Award. *ABI Research is a N.Y.-based technology market research firm founded in 1990. ABI publishes market research and technology intelligence on the wireless, automotive, electronics, networking and energy industries. Details can be found on the web at www.abiresearch.com |
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