Vringo Raises $12M

Video ringtone sharing startup raises $12 million in Series B financing round led by Warburg Pincus

July 31, 2007

2 Min Read

NEW YORK and JERUSALEM -- Vringo, the pioneer invideo ringtone sharing, has announced the successful closing of its SeriesB round of venture capital funding, receiving $12 million in a round led byWarburg Pincus, the global private equity firm. The financing will fundVringo's global expansion as it brings new personalization and contentservices to mobile phone markets in the United States, Europe and Asia.

"Vringo set out with an ambitious goal to make video ringtone sharingfinally work," said Jon Medved, the founder and CEO of Vringo. "We aredelighted to be working with Warburg Pincus, a firm that shares our visionand recognizes the enormous consumer potential in sharing video ringtones.Their extraordinary track record, truly global reach, corporaterelationships and strategic insight will bring huge value to Vringo as itgrows."

Concurrent with the closing of the Series B funding, the companyannounced the election of George Allen, a principal at Warburg Pincus, toits board of directors.

"We are very excited to be involved with Vringo at a time whenconsumers are poised to benefit from the explosion of multimedia mobiledevices," said Mr. Allen of the New York-based firm, which has been apremier investor in technology, media and telecommunications. "Vringo isuniquely positioned to shape and ride the second wave of mobilepersonalization, and the company has the talent to make it happen."

Vringo provides users with the ability to share video ringtones eachtime they make a phone call. Vringo brings ringtones to life by integratingvideo clips, avatars, animation, greeting cards or photos whenever usersmake or receive calls.

Vringo's Chairman, Dan Ciporin, former CEO of Shopping.com, commented:"Vringo is breaking new ground in personalization, we call itPersonalization 2.0. Whereas in the past, ringtone content was mostlyprofessionally created audio, Vringo content will be a richer multimediaand video experience with much of it being user generated. Whilepersonalization used to be about 'me and my phone,' now it is going to beabout 'me and my buddy's phone,' as personalization meets socialnetworking."

Vringo

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