Paris, 27 June 2011 – Truffle Capital and SoLoMoCo, a Mobile Internet company, have announced a 2.8 million Euro investment in the company UTEL SAS. This is SoLoMoCo’s first investment since it was created.
UTEL is a Social Networking mobile applications publisher that focuses on people meeting each other. The applications developed by UTEL are part of the Stores Mobiles blockbusters, among them Fotochat, an encounter service whose look and usage has become popular among the community of fans of mobile apps, as well as being the winner of a Mobiles Content Awards in the Social Network category (www.Fotochat.com ).
CEO of UTEL SAS Nicolas Grumbach commented on the development, saying that “We have numerous development projects on the go, particularly in the domain of mobile Web applications delivery, and we found Truffle Capital and SoLoMoCo to be the kind of financial partners that suited us perfectly. Their knowledge of the sector and their entrepreneurial experience bode well for a fruitful partnership.” He went on to say that “Our speaking the same language also means we understand each other on a higher level than merely talking about target figures. We can make good decisions quickly, in a world where the time to get to market is now counted in weeks not in months.”
Truffle Capital CEO Bernard-Louis Roques said of the initiative that “UTEL is the ideal mobile platform for building an international leader in Social Mobile applications. This is the goal that we have set ourselves through our initiative to make the company an international one, and to facilitate the development of new functionalities and monetisation tools.”
SoLoMoCo CEO Minh Q. Tran commented that "UTEL fits perfectly with SoLoMoCo’s investment strategy as it represents the SO(cial Networks) element that we are interested in taking to an international audience as well as our initiative to launch new location-based mobile services (LOcal MObile COmmerce)". He went on to say that “UTEL is to be a cornerstone of the future developments that we are looking to introduce among the companies in which we are investing.”
SoLoMoCo’s investment strategy is based around two concepts:
- Synergies of resources on three levels: common financial reporting (back office management); technical co-development of mobile applications; and shared commercial effort to gain more customers - with additional applications from different companies available to clients.
- Organic and external growth: to achieve a global valuation of 10 million Euros prior to raising additional funds on the stock market or through investment funds.
About UTEL
UTEL is an innovative ‘boutique publisher’ company in the Mobile industry. Growth prospects are considerable internationally in both markets and convergence of applications on mobile, TV & tablets. The company is expected to generate over 7 million in turnover in 2011. For further information go to www.utel.fr
About SoLoMoCo
SoLoMoCo is a Mobile Internet company investing in Social networks, Local ads, Mobile services and Commerce platforms. It operates as an incubator business which co-invests with Business Angels or Venture Capital in innovative start-ups which have strong synergies between them. For more information, visit www.solomoco.com
About Truffle Capital
Founded in 2002 in Paris, Truffle Capital is a leading independent European private equity firm dedicated to investing in and building technology leaders in the IT, life sciences and energy/sustainable development sectors. With €460 million in managed funds, Truffle Capital is led by a team of four partners (Jean-François Fourt, Henri Moulard, Philippe Pouletty and Bernard-Louis Roques) with decades of successful investment and entrepreneurial experience in both Europe and North America. Truffle Capital aims to achieve superior financial returns by leveraging its industry knowledge, extensive network, operational experience and focus on spin-outs to identify business opportunities that match latent market needs. For further information, please visit www.truffle.com.
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