Mozes, Inc. Secures $5 Million First Round Funding From Norwest Venture Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Mozes, Inc. (http://www.mozes.com/), a start-up allowing anyone to create and manage text message-based mobile campaigns and promotions, today announced it has secured $5 million in first-round funding from Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and North Bridge Venture Partners. Mozes' funding will be used to drive music industry awareness and adoption, as well as market expansion initiatives for the Mozes service. The Mozes service is currently in beta.

"The market opportunity for mobile content, text message delivery and related services is huge and continues to grow," said Robert Abbott, general partner, Norwest Venture Partners. "Mozes empowers content publishers to provide compelling marketing events and campaigns directly to consumers' mobile phones as they wish to receive them. With this service, Mozes is poised for both market and technology leadership in this space."

Mozes is changing the face of interactive mobile marketing by enabling anyone, from brands (advertisers) to bands and fans, to build mobile lists and create highly-targeted interactive mobile campaigns. Mozes is also leading the charge in making these programs more valuable to consumers by incorporating online and instant messaging components that tie the user's mobile experience to their computer.

"Not only is Mozes advancing the landscape for consumers to receive and find information via text messaging and mobile content delivery, but they incorporate community elements where advertisers can reach targeted, lead- generating demographics," said Paul Santinelli, general partner, North Bridge Venture Partners. "Mozes' straightforward business model links advertisers with users through keywords, ensuring content are delivered only to those who've expressed an interest."

Mozes' initial focus is on the music industry, working alongside some of the world's fastest rising stars and leading record labels to help them develop more interactive and dynamic fan experiences. Mozes helps artists keep fans in the loop on concert dates, new releases, exclusive offers, and downloads. Fans can send messages to artists through Mozes, creating an interactive mobile community for each artist. The Mozes service also supports innovative live-event activity such as backstage-pass contests, text-to-screen participation and audience voting.

"We developed Mozes based on our own experiences and where we've seen gaps in existing mobile services that provide a high cost of experimentation and barriers to user participation," said Dorrian Porter, Mozes' CEO and founder. "We're pleased to have the support of Norwest Venture Partners and North Bridge Ventures as we strive to offer the over 220 million North American mobile subscribers with a better way to receive and share information on their mobile phones."

About Mozes, Inc.

Founded in 2005, Mozes, Inc is a privately-held company based in Palo Alto, CA, that connects people to each other and to things they love using the mobile phone and the Internet. Mozes democratizes the creation of interactive mobile experiences by allowing anyone, from brands to bands and fans, to participate. Initially focused on the music industry, Mozes works alongside some of the world's fastest rising bands and leading record labels. In December 2006, Mozes secured $5 million in its first-round of venture capital funding through Norwest Venture Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners. Subscribe to the Mozes blog for updates at http://www.mozes.com/blog/.

About Norwest Venture Partners (NVP)

Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture capital firm that has partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 45 years. NVP focuses on investments in information technology including: consumer Internet and media, software, services, enterprise and communications systems, and semiconductor/components. The firm currently manages more than $2.5 billion in venture capital out of its office in Palo Alto, California.

NVP has funded over 400 companies since inception. Some of the firm's recent investments and transactions include Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), deCarta, DoubleFusion, HedgeStreet, mBlox, Mercora, Resonext Communications (acquired by RF Micro Devices), SideStep, Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance), TURN, Wallop and Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola). NVP has also funded such market leaders as Actel Corporation, Brocade Communications, Cerent (acquired by Cisco Systems), Documentum, Extreme Networks, Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), PeopleSoft and Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM). For more information, please visit http://www.nvp.com/.

About North Bridge Venture Partners

North Bridge Venture Partners is an active, bi-coastal, early stage venture capital fund based in the Waltham, Massachusetts and San Mateo, California. For more information, please visit http://www.nbvp.com/.

For more information contact:

    Irv Remedios
    Mozes, Inc.
    irv@mozes-inc.com