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ItsOn Receives $15.5M in Series B Funding from Andreessen Horowitz [Food and Beverage Close - Up](Food and Beverage Close - Up Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) ItsOn, Inc., a provider of smart mobile services, announced it has secured $15.5 million in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz along with SV Angel and an investor group led by Jim Davidson. According to a release, ItsOn is introducing a new way for mobile services to be delivered, purchased and consumed by consumers and businesses. The company is building direct-to-consumer services and cloud-based solutions that will serve the needs of both mobile service and content providers. ItsOn is co-founded by wireless and networking industry pioneers Dr. Greg Raleigh and Charles Giancarlo. Building a Better Mobile Business with ItsOn ItsOn's cloud-based platform offers complete flexibility and real- time service customization features for both mobile operators and service providers. Businesses will be able to provide services targeted to specific user demographics and device types with minimal development time or market risk. With ItsOn, go-to-market times for these service deployments are days vs. years. ItsOn mobile partners will strengthen brand awareness, improve targeted app placement and their app service sponsorship. "ItsOn provides 3G and 4G wireless consumers and enterprise business managers with complete, real-time visibility and control over their voice, text and more importantly, data usage. Mobile service consumers are finally empowered to choose exactly which mobile services they need and how much they want to spend- eliminating over-charging and bill shock," said ItsOn founder, chairman and CEO Dr. Greg Raleigh. "Consumers can select, monitor, control and share all of their mobile services as they wish, instantly from their phone, tablet or PC without the inconvenience of talking to a sales associate, calling a support center or logging into a website. People will be able to take any ItsOn enabled device out of the box and simply start using whatever services they desire." The smartphone era has created a data explosion, which existing mobile networks are not prepared to handle. The ItsOn platform eliminates the misalignment between escalating data costs for network operators and their revenue, through cost transparency and by putting consumers in complete control of tailored mobile services. This will drive profitable, scalable and attractive mobile operator and MVNO business models, which will keep pace with the growing appetite for mobile data now and into the future. ItsOn Takes on Mobile Industry with Team of Pioneers in Innovation The ItsOn team is stacked and seasoned, many responsible for some of the most significant wireless innovations introduced over the past decade. With this funding, Marc Andreessen will become an active advisor to the company. ItsOn board member, Jim Straight, is the former head of all of Verizon's wireless and wireline consumer services. ItsOn co-founders, Raleigh and Charles Giancarlo, are also accomplished entrepreneurs and leaders: -Raleigh invented and commercialized 4G "MIMO" wireless technology and the newest Wi-Fi technology; led the creation and launch of the Qualcomm Gobi global mobile internet product line; founded Clarity Wireless (acquired by Cisco Systems), and Airgo Networks (acquired by Qualcomm). -Giancarlo has founded several influential networking technology companies, led Cisco's overall product development and management activities for a decade, and has served on the boards of Skype, Accenture and Netflix. Giancarlo serves on the ItsOn Board of Directors. "Just as the Internet revolution resulted in the migration of intelligence from the network core to the edge of wired networks, ItsOn is now enabling the massive, untapped intelligence in smart mobile devices to offer more choice and control for consumers of their mobile services," said Charles Giancarlo, co-founder of ItsOn. "The ItsOn platform decreases network cost, increases network flexibility and puts power into the hands of the consumer. ItsOn is a breakthrough that inverts the entire centralized mobile network paradigm and revolutionizes what people around the world will now be able to do with their mobile connectivity." ItsOn has been in stealth since 2008. ItsOn-enabled mobile services will be available to consumers and businesses in the US and globally starting next year. Previous ItsOn investors include Vodafone Ventures and Verizon Investments. More information: www.itsoninc.com www.a16z.com ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) (c) 2012 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |