Tuesday, June 24, 2008

MPOWER Ventures Funds Sapphire Mobile Systems

MPOWER Ventures LP, an Austin, Texas-based private equity firm focusing on early stage businesses, announced Monday that its investment portfolio now includes Sapphire Mobile Systems of Philadelphia. The amount of MPOWER's investment was not disclosed. Sapphire develops mobile banking and payments applications that are accessible from mobile handsets via the Short Message Service (SMS) communication protocol. As a result of MPOWER's investment, Sapphire has been rebranded as MPOWER Mobile Inc. The company has also been relocated to Austin. MPOWER Ventures noted that Sapphire's co-founders, Moneet Singh and Neeraj Bansal, will continue to lead the company as president and chief operating officer (Singh) and executive vice president of business development (Bansal). More information »