Fortumo, an Estonia-based mobile carrier billing services provider, has raised a reported $10m from Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous chip maker, and venture capital firm Greycroft Partners, according to news provider TechCrunch.
Mobi Solutions, the former majority owner of Fortumo, will remain a shareholder.
Marcin Hejka, managing director of Intel Capital in eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “The opportunity in the mobile payments segment is enormous, and Fortumo is well positioned to capitalize on the trend of operator-based billing.”
Klaus Konrad, investment director of Intel Capital, added: “We are excited about being part of Fortumo’s strategy of bringing seamless mobile payments to more users, merchants, and mobile operators worldwide.”
Rain Rannu, founder of Fortumo, on his blog said: “While others are focusing primarily on the US and large Western European markets, Fortumo has given equally strong emphasis on emerging and growth markets where credit card penetration may be low but mobile usage is very high.
“While others are focusing on large merchants alone, Fortumo is also servicing a ‘long-tail’ of small and medium-sized merchants (via self-service setup on our website), giving them the same access to the billing capabilities world’s largest mobile operators that Angry Birds and Facebook have.”
Fortumo has also struck a contract with China Mobile, the largest telecommunications groups in the world, and added Gameloft, Vostu and Cut the Rope game-maker Zeptolab as merchants, which already includes Rovio, publisher of the Angry Birds line of games, and Badoo.
Rovio is backed by venture capital firm Atomico, whose founder, Niklas Zennstrom, also co-founded internet phone operator Skype that had its software team in Estonia, which in turn has set up a local VC firm, ADI.