Ecrio completes $24M VC round

CUPERTINO, Calif., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Ecrio, the pioneer in
real-time communications and commerce software for mobile phones, today
announced the completion of its 'C' investment round, which exceeded U.S.
$24 million dollars. CSK, JAIC, and Nomura Securities, all global firms
which closely track the wireless industry, joined Aplix, NTT DoCoMo, Visa,
and current investor Noventi/CIR Ventures in the round. JAIC will add a
director to Ecrio's board, joining members from Nexit Ventures, Noventi/CIR
Ventures, and Ecrio.
    "Ecrio's recent string of good news, including the continued rollout of
Ecrio-powered 3G handsets in Japan; the launch of MoBeam(TM) for mobile
barcodes; and Ecrio's development work on Visa's mobile payment platform;
made this a prime opportunity to attract additional funding, " said Nagesh
Challa, Ecrio's chairman and CEO. "The additional resources allow us to
pursue a wide range of strategic opportunities, from increases to our
sales, technical and marketing staff, to enhancing our product line through
partnership or acquisition."
    About the Investors
    CSK Venture Capital invests in and nurtures venture companies in Japan
and overseas, emphasizing the areas of Information Technology and Life
Science. The firm also establishes and manages partnership funds; works
with IPO opportunities; and performs management consulting.
    Japan Asia Investment Company (JAIC) is a venture capital firm focusing
on early stage investments. JAIC's mission is to create cross-border
business models in the Asia-Pacific area through investment in the US. To
date, JAIC has invested over $60 million in investments to more than 30
U.S. companies.
    Nomura is a global financial services group dedicated to providing a
broad range of financial services for individual, institutional, corporate
and government clients. The Group's business activities include investment
consultation and brokerage services for retail investors in Japan, and, on
a global basis, brokerage services, securities underwriting, investment
banking advisory services, merchant banking, and asset management.
http://www.nomura.com.
    Noventi/CIR Ventures is an early stage, Silicon Valley based,
technology venture capital firm. Noventi's past investments include
Bitfone, acquired by HP; Easy Market, acquired by TUI; M7, acquired by BEA
Systems; and Sygate, acquired by Symantec.
    About Ecrio
    Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Ecrio is the leading vendor of
real time commerce and communications software for mobile phones. Ecrio
provides interoperable and standard compliant software to mobile phone
manufacturers and mobile operators. Solutions include 3G communications
applications, such as Instant Messaging and Presence Services (IMPS),
VideoShare, Voice over IP (VoIP), and Push to Talk over Cellular (PoC); and
mobile commerce applications, including NFC and MoBeam mobile barcode
redemption. Ecrio's customers include industry leaders such as ASUSTeK,
NEC, NTT DoCoMo, and Panasonic.
    Visit http://www.ecrio.com
    Ecrio and MoBeam are trademarks of Ecrio Inc. All other brands,
products, and company names mentioned herein are trademarks of their
respective holders.