It was reported today that venture capital investment in the mobile sector continues to rise, with an estimated $312M being funneled into 37 companies and startups during the second quarter of this year alone.
According to the report authored by Peter Crocker, founder and principal analyst at Smith’s Point Analytics, there was a two percent rise in VC funding in wireless companies over Q1, and while the numbers are up, it still only accounts for just 5% of total VC funding for the quarter. Funding focused on several key areas of the mobile ecosystem, in areas like mobile payments, mobile applications, social networking, M2M and “anything around user interfaces,” according to Crocker. It’s important to note that most of the funding went towards mobile software and services companies compared to wireless telecom services.
The top five mobile investments were Row 44 with a $27.75 million round and Jasper Wireless at $21 million, followed by Foursquare at $20 million, Zong with $15 million and Sencha at $14 million. What’s interesting is that the report indicates VCs aren’t really looking at mobile advertising and marketing companies at the moment. “To disrupt that business model may be challenging and then to compete in that business is also going to be challenging,” Crocker said, adding there are always opportunities for niche players. He puts Google’s market share at 24 percent when taking into account its acquisition of AdMob.
