30 November to 1 December, 2015
London, UK

unBound London is the UK’s most exciting innovation festival connecting leaders and growth stage companies from digital ecosystems around the world. more»

For many years Google has had a seemingly unbreakable hold on internet search, with competitors like as Bing and Yahoo having a hard time making any gains in the marketplace.

However, search on mobile devices is developing into quite a unique proposition, with differences in content, user expectations, and technologies.

Venture Capitalists are now betting that Google might well be vulnerable in this new area of search. And so they are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars of investment into start ups that are targeting mobile search. more»

Japanese start up Tonchidot, the company behind the very popular Augmented Reality browser Sekai Camera, has announced a new round of financing totaling $4 million.

The funds were raised from DCM and existing investor ITOCHU Technology Ventures, and will be used to continue development of Tonchidot’s AR products. more»

The big news of the week is that Google has acquired leading mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million.

AdMob says they will continue to operate the AdMob mobile advertising platform, but after the acquisition by Google they “will work together to accelerate the pace of innovation in this area.” more»

Every once in awhile you come across an application or service that really seems like magic. For me, Shazam’s music discovery application is one of those magic services.

Shazam has been in the news recently, announcing some very impressive numbers, a new strategic investment, and an agreement with a major mobile ad network. more»

Navteq, the Nokia subsidiary that provides premium-quality digital map data and content, announced that it has acquired US-based Acuity Mobile.

Navteq says that the acquisition is to strengthen its offering in the rapidly growing area of location based advertising.
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Mobile advertising company Greystripe has announced that it has secured a further $2 million in funding from NBC Universal’s Peacock Equity Fund. This brings Greystripe’s round C investment to $7.5 million, following a $5.5 million investment from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, Incubic Venture Capital, and Monitor Ventures. more»

Although the world economic situation remains pretty dismal, another mobile advertising company has secured additional venture financing.

Premium mobile ad network Quattro has just announced $10million in Series C funding, with the money to be used for international expansion and to launch new services. more»

Even in these difficult economic times, Greystripe has raised an additional $5.5 million in Series C round funding. The primary purpose of this funding will be to enable Greystripe to integrate mobile advertising into existing online media buying systems. To date, Greystripe has powered over 160 million ad-supported mobile downloads. more»

During MWC in Barcelona, we met with a lot of knowledgeable people from across the mobile marketing value chain. Although everyone was clearly uneasy about the impact of the current global economy, we found a strong, underlying optimism about mobile advertising and marketing.

In order to give you better insight into their thinking, we made a series of short, one minute interviews with some of these experts: publishers, agencies, developers, technology companies, venture capitalists.

We’ve also put together a quick round up of some of the top trends we saw at the show. more»

According to a recent poll by KPMG, media and advertising executives expect more than a quarter of media time and spending to move away from traditional channels. At the same time, they believe that mobile and social media advertising will be gaining momentum. more»

A thoughtful piece by Colin Gibbs over at RCR Wireless News discusses the expected future evolution of mobile social networks compared to internet social networks. Expect the mobile versions to grow in popularity and usage, but a question remains about their financial viability! more»

Even in this tough economic climate, some companies are able to move ahead with their financing plans. Taptu, a pure-play mobile search engine has secured a Series B round of £6.45 million, and has added a senior executive to its management team. more»

The ad-funded MVNO Blyk has raised an additional € 40 million ($50.4 million) from its existing investors. This is a big vote of confidence in the youth-oriented company that has been rolling out operations across Europe.

CEO Pekka Ala-Pietilä was quoted as saying “like everyone else [we] are feeling the impact of the world’s financial situation,” and “have taken decisive steps to cut costs and streamline our organization.” more»

MyScreen Mobile has announced that it has received a minority investment of $10 million from Orascom Telecom. The investment will give MyScreen Mobile exclusive access to Orascom’s 70 + million subscribers in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and its affiliates’ (Wind Italy and Wind Greece) 18 million subscribers. more»

Xtract, who specialize in social advertising intelligence, has announced that it has closed a new funding round of €3.5 million led by Creandum with existing investor ETF III also participating. more»

The rest of the world’s financial situation maybe tenuous, but there is still money flowing in the area of mobile advertising. The past couple of weeks has seen continued activity in the acquisition and funding of mobile technology companies, as bigger players work to build up their capabilities in anticipation of the rapid growth of mobile ad revenues. more»