Investment
Hasso Plattner Ventures, Media Ventures and A-Z Beteiligungen have secured a third investment round for mobile information services specialist hiogi. The funding will enable the German company to launch a version of its mobile phone question and answer service for business customers.
Hiogi claims to have created the first Web 2.0 knowledge community, enabling mobile phone users to get answers to ad hoc questions for free, rather than having to eat up costly connection time browsing the Internet for answers.
The company says mobile search has been a hassle in the past, with millions of inappropriate search results. The only alternative was expensive text-a-question services. Compared to machine-based search algorithms or call-centre agents, hiogi is more personal. All answers are based on the wisdom of the crowd, and hiogi says its community will always find the right answer.
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