Mobicious Inc.'s mobile photo-sharing site SnapMyLife has raised a new $5 million round of funding, which will be used to fuel its growth initiatives.

This investment was led by current investors North Bridge Venture Partners and Carmel Ventures. The funds will be used to further expand SnapMyLife's service with new features, a stronger international presence and global partnerships.

"Our growth strategy includes building the site itself by adding more entertainment features to make it more attractive to more users and building infrastructure that's more relevant to advertisers and brands who are ultimately paying our bills," said George Grey, founder/CEO of SnapMyLife, Needham, MA.

"We also want to start building partnerships with the carriers and developing clients for BlackBerry, Nokia Series 60 and possibly Android to complement our iPhone app," he said. "We have a global audience, and we want to continue building out the internationalization of the site.

"The site is in English, and we want to build site versions for Spanish-speakers, Chinese-speakers and so on, which is one of priorities."

Twenty to 25 percent of SnapMyLife users are in the U.S., 30 percent are in Asia, 20 percent in Europe and 20 percent in Africa.

It plans to focus on the U.S. and a couple of European countries, as well as emerging countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.

"Brands are seeing opportunities in those countries where there often isn't very good fixed line or desktop computer access," Mr. Grey said. "Brands wanting to reach middle class in those rapidly developing countries should spend on mobile advertising."

SnapMyLife works with a number of the major mobile ad networks, including Quattro Wireless and AdMob.

"We have good connections with mobile advertising companies, and their feeling -- despite the state of the economy -- is that mobile advertising is still going to grow," Mr. Grey said. "Because of the rapid penetration of the mobile Web, it's easier get at users in a targeted way with more ROI with mobile than typical online advertising."

Brands that have advertised on the mobile site include Reebok, McDonald's, Green Mountain Coffee, the Lifetime Network and various movies including Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2.

SnapMyLife hosts graphic or text ads at the bottom of every page and one at the top of the mobile homepage.

"We're also looking at sponsorships, working more directly with brands and media companies," Mr. Grey said.

SnapMyLife has a year-long relationship with the Travel Channel, enabling fans of "No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain" to use their mobile device to get photos of the show, which are released just before each new episode airs.

"It's a way to get fans interact with content related to the show via mobile," Mr. Grey said. "The show involves travel, eating food in different locations, which is great fit for our site, because it's all about international people who want to see photos from around the world."

Three billion mobile phones worldwide let people instantly capture and share moments of their lives.

SnapMyLife is a mobile-oriented service that lets a wide range of consumers share photos while building a global community of friends.

SnapMyLife's average user in the U.S. is 35 years old with a $60,000 annual income.

More than half of all SnapMyLife users are college-educated and they are split evenly between men and women.

"Our demographic is very different from the typical mobile social networking demographic, older and more affluent, which is a driver for advertisers," Mr. Grey said.

SnapMyLife claims that its premium demographic, targeted content and location-based services offer advertisers an opportunity to reach older and more affluent consumers.

Mobicious hopes that the additional commitment from current investors will enable SnapMyLife to expand its global footprint and add new services in the future.

SnapMyLife was launched in April 2008 and has grown to more than 1.5 million unique visitors per month and more than 500,000 registered users.

Mobile phone consumers from every country in the world use SnapMyLife to share pictures, make friends, see location-tagged pictures on interactive maps, add favorites, comment and chat.

SnapMyLife has focused on the photo-sharing niche of the mobile social networking space.

SnapMyLife is a mobile-Web community for sharing and discovering photos from locations worldwide.

The site is optimized usinb filtering technology for viewing directly on mobile phones and offers location tagging and interactive picture maps.

North Bridge Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm based in the Boston area.

With approximately $1.3 billion under management, North Bridge focuses on investments in the communications, software and other technology markets.

With more than $600 million currently under management and a growing portfolio of start-ups, Carmel is a Herzliya, Israel-based venture capital fund.

Carmel's investments are focused primarily on early stage companies in the fields of Software, Communications, Internet, Media, Semiconductors and Consumer Electronics.

Carmel is an affiliate of the Viola Group, a private equity investment group with more than $1.8 billion under management.

As would be expected, SnapMyLife's growth is largely, but not exclusively, viral.

"A lot is viral, users inviting their friends, and we benefit from trends in social media and social networking," Mr. Grey said. "We have done some investment in mobile advertising, as well as third-party distribution with brands like Apple -- we launched our iPhone app the same day that the App Store launched, so that helped us.

"We want to add new features to make site even stickier," he said. "And, while the site itself is completely off deck, relationships with carriers would add fuel to the fire."