California-based mobile banking outfit mFoundry has secured $15 million in a series c financing round led by handset manufacturer Motorola and including strategic investors PayPal and NCR Corporation.
The round was led by Motorola's strategic venture capital arm Motorola Ventures and included existing investors. In addition to NCR and PayPal, new investors included an un-named wireless operator.
MFoundry says it will use the funds to meet strong domestic and international market demand for its mobile banking and payments products.
As well as the investment, NCR has licensed mFoundry's Spotlight application, which will form part of its mobile technology offering.
The Spotlight platform provides all of the components necessary to deliver financial services over mobile handsets. Financial institutions can create branded applications that can run independently within the mobile operator's system.
Alan Chow, NCR's CTO, says: "The convergence of point-of-service, the Internet and mobility, provides an exciting opportunity for NCR and partners like mFoundry. Our consumer research clearly shows a growing interest in mobility as a conduit for connecting, interacting and transacting with businesses."
Last week US banking group BB&T said it was using mFoundry's Spotlight platform, along with technology from California-based vendor ClairMail, to introduce mobile banking services to its customers. IBC Bank has also licensed the Spotlight mobile banking system to provide customers with real-time, on-demand access to accounts via their hand sets.
Earlier this year mFoundry extended Spotlight platform to implement wireless banking applications on Apple's iPhone.