HipLogic raises $7M in Series B funding

By Giselle Tsirulnik

December 3, 2009

HipLogic raises money

HipLogic Inc. has raised $7 million in Series B funding to further develop and deploy its mobile application platform.

The HipLogic platform helps improve content and application discoverability, provides a consistent user experience across all handset models and optimizes data traffic on cellular networks. The Series B round includes existing investors Benchmark Capital and Stage 1 Ventures as well as new investors Bay Partners, who led the round, and Accrue Sports and Entertainment Ventures.

“We plan to use this round of funding to expand our offering onto new platforms in 2010, while enhancing the user-experience to customize HipLogic for various operator customers and market segments,” said Mark Anderson, CEO of HipLogic, Fremont, CA.

“Our goal is to bring a smartphone-like experience to open mass-market and feature-phones, so that any user can experience social media and entertainment on their device in a rich manner,” he said.

HipLogic’s platform is available for select smartphones as well as feature phones running closed real-time operating systems. It is currently being deployed through a partnership with The Carphone Warehouse, a European mobile retailer.

As part of this funding round, Neil Sadaranganey, representing Bay Partners will join the HipLogic Board of Directors.

“While smartphones have played an huge role in changing the mobile marketplace, feature phones outnumber smartphones by an enormous margin,” Mr. Anderson said. “We're talking about approximately 1 billion  mass-market phones verses 400 million smartphones.

“So even though smartphones have changed the landscape with rich feature-sets, the same type of marketing can reach a much wider audience by creating a smartphone-like experience on feature phones," he said. “It's an exciting marketing opportunity to reach the mass-market with a platform like HipLogic, as opposed to marketers being limited to a smartphone-only audience. 

"Content providers and media companies have been waiting for a (non-Java) solution that helps them normalize distribution of rich content across a wide set of operating systems.”