AAA Rogers has Zoove’s number

Rogers has Zoove’s number

Vanity phone number provider Zoove attracted $5m in funding on Thursday from Rogers Ventures, the corporate venturing division of Canada-based telecommunications company Rogers Communications. The investment comes two months after Zoove raised $15m from its series D round.

Investors in the series D round were venture capital (VC) firms Panorama Capital, Highland Capital Partners and Worldview Technology Partners, and early stage VC fund Cardinal Venture Capital.

Highland and Worldview have been funding Zoove since its $6.8m series A round, in 2006, while Highland came on board for the 2008 series B round, which raised $14.4m. All three firms were later participants in Zoove’s $13m series C round in September 2009.

Zoove operates a registry of vanity numbers – what it refers to as StarStar numbers – for four major mobile networks in the US. The numbers allow entereprise clients to use branded numbers which pertain to the name of their companies, or a promotion they are running. Zoove charges an annual fee to the companies for use of the number but call charges remain normal for the companies’ customers.

Mike Lee, vice president of venture investments at Rogers Ventures, said: "StarStar numbers can be the next great ‘name space’ for advertisers – similar to branded URL names and vanity 1-800 numbers. Brands should want to stake their claim to their own StarStar numbers to create a simple mobile extension for all of their other advertising efforts. It’s an exciting proposition for Rogers Ventures, and I look forward to joining the board and supporting Zoove’s bright future."

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