Solaiemes, a company that is looking for investment to help it build its business in providing RCS platforms for mobile operators, has said that it is finding it very hard to attract investment because it is based in Spain.
In an email to Mobile Europe, CEO Juan Mateu said, “We are now looking for funding but being based in Spain is a clear stopper unfortunately.”
Mateu said the situation was not due to the financial downturn, but because Spanish VC is targeted at internet and e-commerce opportunities, rather than innovative telco technology. He also said that “even the spanish money for VC is looking for investment opportunities in Sillicon Valley”.
On 3 December 2012, the company put up a blog post saying that it is looking for an investment of between $250,000 to $500,000 to help it fund new operations and trials, and develop a US presence.
The company has three T1 operator references and has achieved good “buzz” around its vision of using the RCS REST API to develop RCS as a platform, emabling developers to build apps that include telco functions such as voice, messaging and video.
It’s not as if there’s no money out there for companies addressing the wider RCS opportunity. Earlier this week, Jibe Mobile announced that it had closed $8.3 million in financing with investments by Vodafone Ventures, a Tokyo-based game maker called MTI, and other investors.
Jibe said its Joyn Net solution enables operators to add “invite” functionality to Joyn clients without worrying that the invited party may be on an incompatible network or device. Its App to App application server connects operators’ IMS to Jibe’s cloud-based network, essentially working as an RCS core in a box. That means that carriers don’t need to have to manage direct relationships with developers, but also that IMS-based services can interface with other networks through Jibe’s platform.
Solaiemes’ approach is to create a network API, instancing virtual Joyn clients in the cloud managed by the REST API. This API means clients have no need to work directly with telco protocols, to create interactive services (similar how Voxeo and Twilio integrate voice and SMS services) and can also be accessed by apps to embed Joyn comms. The GSMA is adopting the network API for its Joyn Innovation Accelerator programme.
Referencing the Jibe Mobile investment, Mateu said, “The good news it that finally someone is putting money on the table to develop additional joyn RCS technology.”