AVCJ

Mobeam gets venture capital from Asian, US funds

  • Anita Davis
  • LinkedIn  
  • Google plus  
  • Save this article  

Mobile coupon and scanning technology developer Mobeam has closed a $4.9 million Series A venture round from Samsung Ventures, the investment arm of Korean tech giant Samsung, Mitsui, a Japanese corporate conglomerate, and US-based yet2Ventures.

The VC funds were joined by other independent investors. The funding will be used to advance Mobeam's light based communications (LBC) technology with the aim of becoming a new industry standard for mobile phones to interact with point of sale technology.

According to California-based Mobeam, barcodes displayed on handset screens cannot be easily read by most laser scanners found in retail shops, but Mobeam looks to adapt technology to create clearer and advanced barcode applications for brands. These mobile barcodes can be used in lieu of coupons, loyalty cards, tickets and gift cards.

"The fact is laser scanners are used in all major retail locations throughout the world, yet no current mobile technology can communicate with them, except for mobeam," Ben duPont, general partner of yet2Ventures, said in a statement. "Increasingly, mobile phones are the centerpiece of everyone's daily lives, but in order to deliver a complete digital commerce experience they must communicate universally with scanners at point of sale."

  • LinkedIn  
  • Google plus  
  • Save this article  

More on Venture

Latest News

world-hands-globe-climate-esg
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey

Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...

  • GPs