ShoZu raises $12 million for mobile-to-Web software

Funding round closed

ShoZu, a provider of software for exchanging content between mobile phones and Web 2.0 social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace closed a $12 million third round of financing led by new investor SEB Venture Capital, London, the UK-based venture capital arm of Swedish financial services firm Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken.

Previous investors Atlas Venture, Crescendo Ventures and TTP Ventures also participated.

The ShoZu’s application will ship pre-installed on more than 50 million mobile phones in 2008. In addition, the number of users downloading the ShoZu client to their handsets is more than doubling every quarter, with more than 100,000 users currently registering every month.

“ShoZu is the only mobile social media company that has secured global pre-installation agreements with multiple handset manufacturers. That fact alone positions the firm for substantial growth,” said Frank Kelcz, an investment manager with SEB Venture Capital. “Demand for Mobile-to-Web enabling technology is being driven by a variety of factors, including the need to stay connected with online social media like Flickr and Facebook on the go.”

A recent report from market analyst Juniper Research report predicted that the number of users accessing social networking sites by mobile will rise from 14 million in 2007 to nearly 600 million by 2012.

ShoZu’s Share-It service enables mobile users to maintain contact with their Web-based social networks, personal blogs, photo/video sharing sites and other social media with a few clicks. Users can publish photos and video clips up to 10 minutes in length from their phones to favorite Web 2.0 sites, transmit photos at full or blog-quality resolution, exchange comments with friends, and sign up to receive friends’ photos and other multimedia files on their handsets automatically with no manual intervention.