Closing of Series E Investment Round Brings Total Investment Funding Since Inception to $48.25Million
Austin, TX (PRWEB) [June 23, 2014] – Phunware, the pioneer of Multiscreen as a Service (MaaS), the first fully integrated services platform that enables brands to engage, manage and monetize their anytime anywhere users worldwide, today announced that it has closed its $30.72 million Series E funding with a new strategic investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (“SVIC” or “Samsung Ventures”), the venture arm of the Samsung Group.
The second and final closing of the round supplements prior investments by Firsthand Technology Value Fund (NASDAQ: SVVC), Fraser McCombs Ventures, Cisco, WWE (NYSE: WWE), Maxima Ventures, Wild Basin Investment and the Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN). The investment brings the total raised by Phunware to $48.25 million.
Founded in 2009, and headquartered in Austin, Phunware has achieved dramatic growth since inception and closed 2013 with revenues of $22.1M. The company currently supports more than 1 trillion annual transactions on its “multiscreen cloud platform” across nearly 190 countries and 10 languages.
Phunware, The Software of Things™, is ranked # 36 on the Forbes list of America’s Most Promising Companies, # 40 on the Inc. 500 list of America’s Fastest Growing Companies and # 1 on Austin Business Journal’s Fast50 list for Central Texas. The company is responsible for multiscreen infrastructure, software and application development services for an impressive list of top-tier customers including E! Entertainment Television, NBC Sports, WWE, NASCAR, CBS, Qualcomm, Edmunds, Jawbone, HomeAway, Turner, UHealth, Transamerica, King, Warner Brothers, AT&T and Adobe amongst many others.
“Our investment in Phunware is consistent with our strategy to work closely with established market leaders,” said Michael Pachos, Principal of SVIC. “Phunware is a technology leader and has built a significant business in the MaaS space. The company has demonstrated both a technical and business vision in the industry and we look forward to contributing to the progress their operations.”
Phunware’s fully-integrated, native and mobile-first solutions make it easy for any brand to add multiscreen application support for content management, location based services, advertising, alerts and notifications and business intelligence and analytics through the use of a single login on a single platform with a single partner. This unique and comprehensive solutions-based approach reduces both the cost and complexity that brands have been forced to tolerate historically with an ecosystem filled with fragmented, incomplete and non-integrated point products.
“We are extremely excited to add SVIC as a strategic investor for our business,” commented Alan S. Knitowski, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Phunware. “Samsung Ventures has a 14+ year track record of investing in leading venture-backed companies and through our relationship with SVIC we are looking forward to deepening our relationship with the Samsung Group globally.”
For more information about current and upcoming products, as well as case studies from Phunware’s impressive list of global brands, please visit www.phunware.com.
About Phunware
Phunware is the pioneer of Multiscreen as a Service (MaaS), the first fully integrated services platform that enables brands to engage, manage and monetize their anytime anywhere users worldwide. Phunware, The Software of Things™, has introduced category-defining experiences that challenge the outer limits of the most advanced connected devices for the world’s most respected brands and develops next-generation technologies and solutions that transform how the world interacts with and uses these connected devices. The company has a 4 year percentage growth of 17,824% and is ranked # 36 on the Forbes list of America’s Most Promising Companies, # 40 on the Inc. 500 list of America’s Fastest Growing Companies and # 1 on Austin Business Journal’s Fast50 list for Central Texas. For more information, please visit www.phunware.com and follow us on Twitter @Phunware.
About Samsung Venture Investment Corporation
Samsung Venture Investment Corporation manages investment and investment-related activities for Samsung affiliate companies. The investment mandate for SVIC tracks closely to the strategic priorities of Samsung affiliate companies’ core operating divisions and encompasses investments in semiconductors, displays, telecommunications and consumer electronics.
