Prime Technology Ventures to finance international expansion & development

AMSTERDAM – February 05, 2008 – eBuddy, the world’s leading independent provider of web and mobile instant messaging (IM), announced today that it has secured Series B financing of €6.5 million in an investment led by Prime Technology Ventures (PTV).

Jan-Joost Rueb, eBuddy CEO and co-Founder commented, “eBuddy experienced a 50% increase of unique visitors in 2007 and now counts more than 12 million unique monthly visitors. As we continue to grow from strength-to-strength, we are delighted to welcome our latest investor, Prime Technology Ventures. PTVs support and investment expertise with worldwide mobile and internet companies will enable eBuddy to continue our fast-paced growth and international expansion – specifically in the UK and US – whilst focusing attention on new advertising platforms and increased mobile IM development.”

According to research firm, The Radicati Group, the number of public IM accounts worldwide is 993 million and the market will reach an estimated 1.5 billion accounts by 2011. Furthermore, research analysts at Informa estimate the global market for mobile instant messaging will become an $11 billion (€7.4bn) industry by 2011. eBuddy is in a unique position to capitalize on that estimated IM growth based upon recent performance and achievements including:

• 12 million monthly global visitors
• 1.5 million new network users added every month
• 1.2 million unique mobile users worldwide
• 1.3 billion+ advertising impressions per month
• Google Zeitgeist 2007 Report: #7 most searched keyword (global)

Prime Technology Ventures Managing Partner and Founder, Sake Bosch said, “We are excited to be involved with a dynamic, high-growth company like eBuddy. The management teams’ vision has produced a profitable business model that is well-positioned to capitalize on the continued
evolution of web and mobile-device instant messaging. Prime Technology Ventures’ investment in eBuddy will ensure they have the resources and additional expertise necessary to succeed and reach international maturity at a rapid pace.”

About eBuddy
eBuddy (www.ebuddy.com) created the world’s first, independent, web browser-based instant messaging service as e-Messenger in 2003. Its patent-pending technology enables more than 12 million monthly global visitors with AOL, Google Talk, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo Messenger accounts to chat free of charge in one interface without having to download or install any application on their computer. Users can also access eBuddy on their mobile phone, independent of carrier or device via WAP or mobile internet browser. (m.ebuddy.com). eBuddy is a privately held, Netherlands based company backed by Prime Technology Ventures and Lowland Capital Partners. For more information, visit www.ebuddy.com

About Prime Technology Ventures
Prime Technology Ventures (PTV) is a leading European venture capital fund investing in fundamental hardware and software technologies in wireless, networking and the Internet. PTV focuses particularly on technology centers in the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Israel and the
United Kingdom. The PTV team works closely with portfolio companies that strive for rapid international growth and maturity. PTV brings along a special combination of successful real-world business experience and a broad network of business accelerators, special investors and partnering expertise. This combination also makes PTV an attractive lead investor in syndication with local funds. To learn more about Prime Technology Ventures visit www.ptv.com

eBuddy PR contact:
Mindy M. Hull
Head of Marketing Communications & PR
Tel: +31 20 514 1426
Mobile: +31 62 072 4373
mhull@ebuddy.com

Prime Technology Ventures PR contact:
Marloes Drost
Tel: +31 70 311 5864


Articles covering this news item
• NY Times Blog
• Red Herring
• Techcruch.com
• CenterNetworks.com
• GigaOm.com
• Pulse2.com
• The Next Web
• NU.nl
• Science Business


This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 4:43 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.