SoLoMoCo - Venturing in Mobile Services

SoLoMoCo invests in mobile payment services and takes a stake in Smile&Pay

SoLoMoCo invests in mobile payment services and takes a stake in Smile&Pay

SoLoMoCo makes an investment in a new card payment mobile platform in France.

 

Paris, December 6th 2011 – SoLoMoCo, an Internet Mobile investment holding, announced a third investment in Smile&Pay SAS. 

Smile&Pay is a newly created specialist in card payment mobile service.  Its flagship product, Swiff, makes it possible for small merchants and professionals in mobility, to process credit card payment from consumers with smartphones on Apple and Android platforms. 

The CEO of Smile&Pay SAS, Benoit Delestre, said that "We are proud to launch in France the 1st card payment solution on smartphones and tablets. Our strategy is to propose new mobile services to merchants as an alternative to current card payment devices (POS terminals). Currently, we are recruiting our 1st 100 merchants for our beta launch next January." 

 

SoLoMoCo CEO Minh Q. Tran said that “Smile&Pay perfectly matches with our investment strategy as it represents the MO(bile) and CO(mmerce) elements. I am confident that Smile&Pay – a new card payment smartphone in France – will help thousands of merchants to process more payments on the go in the next few months.” 

SoLoMoCo’s build-up strategy is based around two concepts:

• The achievement and harmonization of synergies in its portfolio companies on three levels : financial (back office management) ; technical -  with the concurrent development of mobile applications ; and commercial - with a view to making a more comprehensive package of additional applications from different companies available to clients. 

• Organic and external growth: achieving a global increase in value of 10 million Euros prior to raising additional funds on the stock market or through investment funds. 

 

About Smile&Pay

Smile&Pay is the 1st French operator of card payment solutions on smartphones & tablets with a one-stop-shop for small and medium merchants looking for a mobile and secure payment solution.

For further information go to www.smileandpay.com

 

About SoLoMoCo

SoLoMoCo is a specialized company in Mobile Internet. It operates as an incubator business which co-invests with Business Angels or venture capital investments for innovative start-ups with a strong potential which have strong synergies between them and helps them to federate their means. These start-ups may have to work together thereafter because of their synergies in mobile services. 

For more information, visit www.solomoco.com 

TikiMee

Recently, I have been testing TikiMee (beta version). 

http://www.tikimee.com/minhtran

 

 

Hype curve on mobile applications

Hype curve on mobile applications
Originally uploaded by Minh Q. Tran

An interesting curve on mobile applications from Gartner in 2009.

Joining Mobile Tag as COO

Mobiletag, the 2D barcode European leader, proposes a global solution regrouping:

• Barcode creation and management
• Readers and applications for mobile phones
• The information management platform

Mobiletag : a global solution

The tag: 2D barcode or flashcode

The tag is an intelligent barcode read by mobile phones

• Datamatrix: the European standard ISO/IEC 16022 : 2000 (E) ECC 200
• A standard certified by the European market
• Interoperability with multiple operators

The tag reader

• Integration compatible with all constructors
• The reader and the application are directly embedded in mobile phones

Tag creation and platform management

• Simple, fast and customized access
• Back office interface for managing contents

The technology

The mobiletag decoder is the tag decoding technology used by mobile phone operators and manufacturers.

Mobiletag allows shooting or capturing tags integrating services and/or multimedia contents (music, videos, photos), the Internet (WAP, WEB portals) or mobile phone functions (contacts…)

This technology has been developed for all platforms in order to reach the entire European mobile phone base. With over 7 years' experience of in-factory embedded computing, our developers are each specialized in a particular mobile platform.

Thus, mobiletag is developed in Java for Samsung, Siemens and LG mobile phones, etc, Symbian (mainly Nokia), Symbian S40 for entry range models and S60 for high-end mobile phones (N95, N70, etc.) and Windows Mobile (HTC, QTeck, etc).

Mobiles phone constructors

Mobile platforms

From Mobile Advertising to Mobile Venturing: the end of Nokia life and beginning of an entrepreneur-in-residence

Last picture taken with N95 in Nokia:

 

First days in Nokia Finland (4 years ago):

         

This is my last day at Nokia. After 4 years (out of which 2 years in Helsinki), I decided to move into mobile venturing with VC funds in Paris. The concept is an entrepreneur-in-residence.

The success of Nokia Ad Service, a venture back-up by Nokia Ventures, was the key factor:

1. We launched this start-up with three people raising in total <5m €. After 15 months, I developed revenues to 15m € in 15 months.

2. We then merged with Enpocket and sold the combined unit to Nokia Corp with a multiple higher than 10 times my revenues.

3. With this 1st track record, I aspire to repeat such a success with another start-up or growing company. The search is now on... MORE SOON.