Iris Capital, a venture capital group which manages mobile phone operator Orange and advertising services Publicis Group’s joint corporate venturing initiative (OP), has made a $20m investment into Lookout, a mobile security company. OP is a €300m ($392m) fund backed by Orange, Publicis and Iris Capital.
Iris Capital specialises in digital economy and has invested more than €900m in more than 200 companies.
Iris makes investments of up to €15m in startups that are strategic for one or both of the companies. This is one of the first US investments. The fund has also backed mobile advertising startup Mopub, participating in the company’s $12m B round.
Prior to this investment Lookout has raised $76m in funding. Its Series A in 2009 raised $5.5m in a round which included venture firm Khosla Ventures and Trilogy Equity Partnership, a financial organization formed by John W. Stanton. Series B and C rounds in 2011 raised $11m and $19.5m. $40m was raised in 2011 led by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. Lookout is also backed by Accel Partners
John Hering, chief executive of Lookout, said: “We are very happy to welcome Iris Capital as a new investor, and greatly appreciated their value added during the whole process leading to this global announcement of an investment joined with a major partnership with Orange, Europe is a key growth area for Lookout and this partnership will help us reach a large and relevant customer base, and also build awareness about Lookout.”
This investment means Lookout will be installed on all android phones from 2013.