Fortumo is an international mobile payment provider. The company offers various mobile payment solutions for web services and mobile applications. Fortumo services allow customers to make mobile payments in more than 70 countries on six continents, with a strong focus on emerging markets.
Fortumo started in 2007 as a spin-off of the mobile services company Mobi Solutions, and currently employs over 60 people in its offices in Tartu, Estonia, San Francisco, CA and Beijing, China. As of March 2013, over 82 thousand developers have signed up to Fortumo’s services.
Fortumo provides mobile payment solutions for web, mobile web and native app monetization.
Web payment solution is used by online games and social networks to enable purchase of monthly memberships, virtual goods and additional content, mostly used as part of the freemium business model.
Mobile web payment solution is powered by HTML5, which makes it compatible with many cross-platform games and applications.
Native in-application purchase SDK is currently available for native apps running on Android, Windows 8, Windows Phone and J2ME. Unlike other payment options, the SDK supports payments while the phone or tablet device is offline.
Fortumo payments rely on mobile operator billing, offering a secure and user-friendly alternative to credit card payments. This allows developers to monetize users in emerging markets, such as Latin America and Asia, where credit card penetration is low.
Partners
The company has partnered with many leading industry names, such as Rovio, Badoo, Digital Chocolate and others. At the same time Fortumo is the preferred payment platform of many small and medium sized developers thanks to its instant self-service setup and absence of activation or monthly fees. In March 2013, Barnes & Noble announced plans to start providing in-app purchasing for Nook tablets through Fortumo.
In June 2013, the company announced that it plans to start preloading its customers games and apps to ZTE smartphones. Fortumo’s native in-application purchase SDK is available to developers using Marmalade and Corona cross-platform development tools since June 2013.
Intel Capital and Greycroft Partners
In February 2013, Fortumo announced it had completed a growth round of financing with the first external shareholders – Intel Capital and Greycroft Partners – joining the company. Although financial details about the funding were not disclosed, TechCrunch reported approximately 10 million USD as the size of the deal. Fortumo co-founder Rain Rannu explained the reasons for bringing in additional investors: “Working with Intel Capital and Greycroft will help us to pursue additional growth opportunities, including strategic partnerships and acquisitions.”
Company Website: Fortumo
Source: Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortumo