Poken, a Switzerland-based company that produces a keychain for connecting to social networking platforms, has raised $2m from two local corporations as part of a move to the US.
Swisscom Ventures, the in-house venture capital division of the Alpine telecoms operator, and bank Credit Suisse’s corporate venturing unit SVC – Ltd. for Risk Capital for SMEs, led the $2m round.
Swisscom Ventures had also been part of the syndicate providing a $1.8m investment in Poken in May 2010 and is encouraging its month to the US. Dominique Megret, head of Swisscom Ventures and president of Poken, said: "We are expanding Pokens operations in the Silicon Valley, because we want to further develop Poken’s ‘touch’ based marketing solutions in the mobile and social networking ecosystems."
Next month, Poken, which earlier in the year won Best Innovation in Mobile Advertising award at Mobile World Congress, will move its headquarters from Switzerland to the US and hired Sri Chilukuri to be its chief executive (CEO) from California.
Chilukuri was most recently CEO of Content Circles, which was acquired by online phone operator Skype last year, and previously held executive positions at Adobe Systems, VA Linux Systems, Bellamax and Xerox.
Incumbent CEO Stéphane Doutriaux will remain with Poken as chief product officer (CPO) while Jeff Heywood joins the company as chief financial officer.