Mobile picture and video sharing platform Mobli has had quite the celebrity endorsement. Its raised approximately $28M, $22M of which in its most recent round of financing came from private investor Kenges Rakishev, and approximately $6.5M more in previous rounds that included celebrity investors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Serena Williams. It's hard to get better than that, but they are about to get another kind of celebrity on board. Today América Móvil, the Latin Americas telco giant, is leading a $60 million round, as part of which Mobil will get distribution amongst América Móvil's millions of mobile users. Mobil works across Android, Windows and iPhone but not poor old Blackberry.
Mobli want to use the cash to launch and expand its visual search engine enabling its users to “see the world through other people's eyes”, and to scroll back in time through previous images.
In a statement Carlos Slim, the Mexican tycoon behind América Móvil, said “Mobli has developed a remarkable technology and this strategic alliance will allow América Móvil to bring value added experiences for its users throughout the Americas." Slim has been ranked as the richest person in the world, swapping places with Bill Gates as few times for that accolade. He's worth a paltry $66 billion or so.
Obviously this investment will push Mobli's valuation to around the $1 billion mark.
Moshe Hogeg, founder and CEO of Mobli, says the deal will mean the startup reaching “millions of users in Latin America.” And it will. América Móvil is the fourth largest mobile network operator in the world with revenues of $59.3 billion last year and services over 246 million mobile subscribers in 18 countries.
Originally launched in 2011, Mobli is a sort of ‘Instagram on uppers' allowing users to connect around common interests via other users, hashtags and locations in their feed. Is has a lot of features that latter app does not.
Unlike Instagram when a user wants to post a photo, the Mobli app immediately offers the latest three images added to the gallery. No need to click into it to select which is very convenient.
Leonardo DiCaprio said in a canned statement that he has “always been excited by Mobli's mission to connect people around the world through shared visual images. Today's announcement means that a massive new community of users will be introduced to an incredible experience of discovery and sharing."
With another $60million they should add caring and sharing really.
Source: TechCrunch http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/-zTeMi9Wmk0/
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