Sennari Secures $10 Million In Funding
Mayfield leads investment in growing mobile CRM services provider
CUPERTINO, Calif. --Sept. 6, 2006--Sennari, the world leader in mobile customer relationship management (mCRM)-based applications for mobile phones, announces today that it has closed $10 million in venture capital funding in a Series C financing round led by Mayfield Fund. Existing investors - UV Partners, Novak Biddle and Blacksmith Capital - also participated in this round.
"This investment is a significant milestone for Sennari," said Bill Barhydt, chief executive officer of Sennari. "It's a testament to the success and traction of our mobile CRM based services, such as PrizePlay, have already received in the market and where we will invest in the future. These resources will help us expand and grow our mobile CRM platform business. We look forward to working with Mayfield and our existing investors as close partners in achieving our goals."
Sennari has been making great strides in the market with its mobile CRM platform. PrizePlay, the first service to use the mCRM platform, continues to be a commercial success with new distribution partners being added almost weekly. Recently, the company announced a key partnership with the Hasbro Properties Group to develop and distribute Hasbro games as part of the PrizePlay mobile gaming service. Additionally, Sennari launched a new affiliate program that allows web sites to earn cash by offering PrizePlay games as free downloads. Since its inception, Sennari has secured major customers and partners including, Vodafone, T-Mobile, amp'd mobile, Hasbro, Ericsson and CBS.
"We invested in Sennari because it is the only company to offer mobile operators a platform that enables customer loyalty, reduced churn, transactions and new entertainment-based revenue streams," said Janice Roberts, managing director, Mayfield Fund. "Sennari's first mobile CRM application, PrizePlay, establishes a direct relationship with mobile consumers, generating repeat revenues from reward-based individual and tournament game play."
Sennari's first mCRM service, PrizePlay, launched in 2005. Built on Sennari's mCRM platform, PrizePlay skill-based games have been popular among users on carriers including T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and Orange by offering compelling features, such as: in-game prizing, real-time game interaction; pay per play tokens; and tournament style gaming. In addition, Sennari offers a number of other mCRM services, including: customized loyalty programs for carriers and handset makers and MobileTunes, the first free promotional music channel for mobile phones, which provides the ability to do opt-in advertising and push messaging to mobile consumers.
About Sennari
Sennari offers the first mobile customer relationship management (mCRM) platform for building connected, transactional mobile applications. mCRM enabled applications, like PrizePlay, are designed to increase loyalty and revenue potential by enabling all forms of consumer relationships within mobile content applications, including auto user registration, in-app transactions such as pay per use, loyalty points and subscriptions, real-time events and promotions, customer interaction, friend based referral programs, opt-in marketing and SMS campaigns. For more information, visit www.sennari.com
About Mayfield
Mayfield Fund provides "venture capital with impact" by partnering with exceptional individuals to create industry-leading companies. Mayfield has domain expertise in communications/wireless, consumer/media, enterprise software and semiconductors. The firm has over $2.3 billion under management and a team of eleven investing professionals. Since Mayfield's founding in 1969, the firm has invested in more than 470 high-growth companies, taken more than 100 public and more than 150 have merged or were acquired.