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Venture Capital Firm Andreessen Horowitz Funding, Advising Boku
by Eric Caoili [PC, Console/PC]
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May 27, 2010
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Mobile virtual goods payments firm Boku announced that it's received a "strategic investment" of an undisclosed amount from Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm led by Silicon Valley luminaries Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
Boku's service allows players to purchase virtual goods or currency in social games and apps by texting a listed cell phone number; users then receive an automatic charge on their monthly mobile bill. Its payment options are available through 190 carriers worldwide in 58 countries, reaching a potential 1.8 billion customers.
With the deal, the two tech veterans will take on an advisory role for Boku. Andreessen is best known for founding Netscape, while Horowitz is famous for co-founding and heading enterprise software company Opsware (purchased by HP in 2007 for $1.6 billion).
The mobile payments company also revealed two new executive hires: AT&T Interactive's former SVP and chief product officer David Yoo joins Boku as its senior vice president of Strategy, and MobiTV's former Sales VP Kevin Grant signs on as the company's senior vice president of Sales.
This new funding follows several months after the firm secured $25 million in a round led by DAG Ventures, with previous investors Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures also participating. As of last January, Boku has so far raised $38 million since it was formed in March 2009.
"We did an extensive review of the mobile payments space and the players before deciding to work with Boku," said Andreessen, according to a report from VentureBeat. "We feel that Boku’s management team along with the company’s market-leading merchant relationships, global coverage, and technology will be a powerful combination as they continue their aggressive growth plans in a rapidly changing space."
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