Breeze Tech Raises UK PDS 800,000
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
In our article “Fund Raising On AIM” in early May we touched upon a number of successful fund raising initiatives (not all AIM related). One of those mentioned by us was Beringea’s investment in Breeze Tech.
We don’t know why it has taken them so long to do an official announcement about it but the official press release is below…
ProVen VCTs invest in Breeze Tech
Beringea extends its portfolio of innovative businesses by adding UK Bluetooth marketing specialists
London, 22 May 2008—Breeze Tech, the world leader in Bluetooth marketing, have announced a further round of funding through an expansion capital deal from private equity firm Beringea Ltd.
Beringea, manager of ProVen VCT and ProVen Growth & Income VCT, has committed £800,000 to support the growth of Breeze Tech’s sales and marketing capabilities. Beringea is known for supporting innovative, fast growing businesses in the digital world and has also provided funding to digital agencies Steak Media and i-Level.
McCormick, the Beringea director who led this deal, has introduced Michael de Kare-Silver to bring his vast experience and expertise in digital media to the company as Chairman. He joins other notable figures from the industry on the Breeze Tech board, including Shaun Gregory, CEO of Blyk UK, recently appointed non-Executive Director.
Breeze Tech is based in the UK and since 2003 has grown rapidly to become an international provider of wireless marketing solutions. Breeze Tech’s media servers deliver rich digital content directly to consumers’ mobile phones and are frequently used to add interactivity to advertising campaigns in high dwell areas where brands wish to engage with their target audience. Content can range from ringtones and movie trailers to city travel guides and tutorial and is broadcast to all enabled phones within a specific location.
Breeze Tech’s technology has a number of distinguishing features setting it apart from the competition, including comprehensive handset recognition, “dwell vs move” capability and realtime reporting. Through partner deals with leading out of home media owners such as CBS Outdoor, Titan Outdoor, EYE Corp., Redbus and JC Decaux, the company has driven a series of high profile campaigns with clients such as 3 Mobile, Sky, Universal, Nokia, Fiat and Nike.
Gregor Isbister, Breeze Tech founder, said “Coming at a critical stage in our development, with the market full of potential, this funding will allow Breeze Tech to accelerate ongoing activities and expand our networks to support major client campaigns across the UK and beyond. Beringea shares our vision and is unique in its ability to support our growth through its extensive knowledge and expertise in the digital media and content industries.”
Beringea’s Karen McCormick commented “We are very excited to be working with Breeze Tech. Businesses are increasingly looking for new ways to engage consumers and the innovative technology developed by Gregor and his team, combined with their marketing expertise, puts Breeze Tech in a great position. Breeze Tech already has a strong track record in the media content and technologies sectors and we believe, great potential for further growth.”
ABOUT BREEZE TECH
Breeze Tech is the world leader in Bluetooth marketing solutions. Our solutions enable brands to interact with their target market by delivering rich digital content directly to mobile phones. Our media servers are ideal for venues where people gather and “dwell” in certain places for a period of time such as stations, airports, music festivals, exhibitions and retail outlets. Breeze Tech technology allows a wide variety of rich content to be offered, including video clips such as film “teasers” or interviews, ringtones, wallpapers, contact cards and exhibition information guides. Features of Breeze Tech technology includes the unique ability to distinguish static targets from moving ones (dwell vs move), functionality to allow consumers to opt in or out of receiving content, fully networked content management with changes as frequent as the client requires and real time reporting for measuring campaign results.
Breeze Tech has offices in London, Sydney and Los Angeles and can be contacted via info@breeze-tech.co.uk or +44 (0)20 7421 2591.
ABOUT BERINGEA
Beringea is an international private equity and investment banking firm with offices in Detroit, London and Los Angeles and Shanghai. Beringea is the manager of InvestCare Partners, a healthcare venture capital fund, among others. For more information on Beringea’s private equity activities, visit www.beringea.com.
Follow DailyDOOH