US-based mobile monetisation technology provider Phunware secured $22m in series F financing from investors including telecommunications firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and sports entertainment organisation WWE yesterday.
The round was led by Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, and included Wavemaker Partners, Fraser McCombs Capital, Maxima Ventures, Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN) and Baylor Angel Network. PLDT invested through its PLDT Capital unit.
The funding was added to funding closed in December 2015, according to a securities filing, and takes Phunware’s series F round to $40m. Phunware is targeting $50m for a final close, which it expects to take place before the end of this year.
Phunware produces multiscreen-as-a-service (MaaS) software that assists brands in engaging users through mobile apps and securing revenue from them. It estimates the platform reaches about 650 million monthly active users.
Alan S. Knitowski, co-founder and CEO of Phunware, said: “We are the only mobile, native and fully-integrated-first multiscreen cloud platform in the world and our MaaS platform products and solutions currently power more than 40 billion mobile user events every month and more than 1 trillion transactions annually.
“This funding will help turn every one of our global application touch points into an opportunity to reach, engage with and convert users on a 1:1 basis, and will further our vision of having every device in the internet of things touch the Phunware platform by 2020.”
The extra capital boosted Phunware’s total funding to $90m since it was founded in 2009 and follows a $30m series E round in early 2014 that featured WWE, networking equipment maker Cisco, Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Fraser McCombs, Maxima, Wild Basin Investment and CTAN.