Bluestreak closes US$20 million Series D financing
A favourite Wellington Financial Fund III deal is Montreal’s Bluestreak Technology. We provided a combo $5.5 million venture debt and operating line facility in January, joining existing investors BDC Venture Capital, Fonds FTQ and First Capital of Dallas. Earlier this morning, Bluestreak announced that France-based Iris Capital has led a US$20 million Series D round. A Korean investor, Tomorrow Group, is also joining the round. And we are staying in, as well.
Our deal was designed by VC Steve Abrams to give the company the True Growth Capital ™ needed to continue to execute on its business plan. The success of Series D round speaks to the opportunity we saw last winter. As does Espial’s (ESP:TSX) recent successful IPO.
Here’s an excerpt from the press release:
Over the past months, Bluestreak has signed numerous deals, including partnerships with Symbian and ACCESS, to establish MachBlue as the go-to platform for the development of rich-media applications on mobile phones and digital TV devices.
Alexander Wiedmer, partner at Iris Capital, stated, “We believe that Bluestreak’s unique technology is poised to capture a sizable market share in Europe as operators look to leverage content through rich media applications. Orange’s success with its Bluestreak powered applications in France has already validated this approach.”
Tomorrow Group Chairman Il Ho Kuk said that “Bluestreak’s technology represents the cutting edge in the rich media field. We look forward to working together on the many business opportunities for the company in Korea.”
“All areas of Bluestreak’s business are witnessing incredible growth, especially in Europe and Asia. We are pleased to accompany them in this next growth phase” said Jacques Bernier, SVP information technologies, telecommunications, and industrial innovations at Solidarity Fund QFL. Steven Abrams, Director, BDC Venture Capital, added: “Bluestreak has been building solid traction in the market and this funding will allow the company to execute on these opportunities.”
Bluestreak CEO Paul Forostowsky commented; “This has been a breakout year for Bluestreak. Since the beginning of 2007 we’ve announced JAVA and BREW versions of MachBlue Mobile and new partners in Dutch operator KPN and Thomson on the DVB-H side. Our digital TV business has also been growing substantially, with great strides in the IPTV sector. This latest round of
financing, propelled by geographically diverse investors, will allow Bluestreak to further consolidate our position in the fast-growing rich media market and to continue winning major accounts worldwide including in the Chinese and Korean markets.”
Congrats to everyone on the Bluestreak team!
MRM
What partnerships with Symbian have you signed?
Thanks for the question. This is from a March press release:
MONTREAL – March 22, 2007 – Bluestreak Technology, developer of the award-winning MachBlue™ platform for mobile and television, today announced it has joined the Symbian Platinum Program, a move that signals its continuing support for the growing market of Symbian smartphones. Symbian develops and licenses Symbian OS™, the market-leading operating system for smartphones. Symbian OS is licensed by the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturers and to date, more than 110 million Symbian smartphones have been shipped worldwide to over 250 major network operators.
Smartphones represent the fastest growing segment within mobile, growing at 46.6% compared to mobile at 21% year on year growth Q305 to Q306 reported analyst firm IDC. With IDC’s forecast of cumulative global shipments of smartphones due to pass the one billion mark by 2011, Symbian OS represents one of the biggest commercial opportunities in mobile.
MachBlue, which enables rich-media applications, runs Flash®-formatted* files on mobile phones and digital TV set-top boxes. “The open standards and flexibility of Symbian OS are driving the kind of innovation that allows Bluestreak to fully demonstrate the power and value of MachBlue,” said John McCalla, CTO of Bluestreak. “By becoming a Symbian Platinum Partner, we can expand the reach of our platform and further cement our relationships with network operators, device manufacturers, and Symbian smartphone users.”
“With the accelerated worldwide adoption of Symbian smartphones , we are always looking for new ways to enrich the user experience through the development and provisioning of rich-media content and applications that deliver appreciable value to handset manufacturers, operators and end-users,” said Jerry Panagrossi, vice president of US operations, Symbian. “Bluestreak’s MachBlue technology enables operators to launch fully integrated triple- and quadruple-play solutions that offer unified, branded user interface experiences across both smartphone and digital television networks.”
MRM