Monday, March 12, 2007

Mobicious makes local mobile content play

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

As a New England-based wireless startup, Waltham's Mobicious Inc. is ambitious.

The company is readying a launch of its Google-type search for mobile content, text messaging and user-generated recommendations of content. The idea is to create a place on the Internet where mobile users can easily find the content they want and deliver it to their phone -- from wallpaper and ringtones to weather services or sports scores.

Unlike many local technology startups, Mobicious doesn't feature a piece of equipment, but is more of a media service play, in the mold of Google, Yahoo or MySpace, but for mobile phone users. Working to be listed among those brands is ambitious enough; doing so in New England has been a rarity.

But George Grey and David Chang think the time is right.

"I think New England is an ideal place to hatch a service that operates at the crossroads of mobility and digital media," said Chang, vice president of marketing for Mobicious and former director of product marketing at Watertown's m-Qube Inc. before it was sold to California's VeriSign Inc. for $250 million last spring.

"A ton of smart minds and capital in the Boston area are being invested in startups in all parts of the mobile value chain including delivery, advertising, and applications," Chang said.

Grey, former president and COO of SavaJe Inc., a maker of a Java-based operating system for mobile phones, founded Mobicious last November. Grey left Chelmford's SavaJe last March, before it laid off much of its staff and failed to land a new round of funding in the fall. He started working on the idea for Mobicious shortly thereafter, and brought in Chang.

The pair took their idea to some previous contacts at North Bridge Venture Partners in Waltham. North Bridge saw enough in the plan to grant an undisclosed amount of seed funding and incubate the company within its own offices.

Four months after its founding, Grey has three contractors developing the product while he focuses on a search for Mobicious' first round of funding. Grey said he expects the product to be ready for a "soft launch" this spring.

Plans are for the service to be free for users, using a Google-like advertising model to generate revenue, according to Grey.

Mobicious may still be unknown to many in the area, but some say the time may be right for this type of company to launch in New England.

"I don't think we're as geographically siloed with these kinds of companies as we used to be," said David Rauktys, a partner at venture consulting firm Venture Advisors in Burlington.

Jeff Janer, chief marketing officer of Boston's Third Screen Media Inc., a mobile advertising technology company, agrees and said there is no reason why a company from New England can't join the likes of Google and MySpace.

"Remember, a lot of the fallout from CMGI and Lycos' boom days is still here," he said. "I think there is a pent-up supply of talent here in New England."

Grey and Chang are hoping investors see the same thing.