Obopay Confirms $20 Million Financing Round
Obopay has announced the closing of its fourth round of venture funding, raising $20 million along with adding two new board members. Essar Communications Holdings Limited, the telecom subsidiary of Essar Global Limited, led the round. The two new board members are K B Rajendran, Senior Vice President, Essar Global Limited and Robert G. Hottensen, Jr., Senior Vice President for Public Equity at Olayan America Corporation.
"This round of investment builds on Obopay's proven success in the mobile payments market," explained Carol Realini, CEO of Obopay. "With our continuing focus on delivering services built on specific feedback from consumers, such as the ability to send money from and receive money to any US bank account, the success of our partnerships and our international expansion, we remain confident in the viability of the American -- and global -- mobile payments market."
Essar Communications Holdings Limited, the telecom subsidiary of Essar Global Limited, led the round and current investors, including Alliance Bernstein, ONSET Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Richmond Management and Richmond Global Cellular, Citi, Societe Generale, Qualcomm, and Promethean participated. New investors included Essar Communications Holdings Limited and Olayan America Corporation, a global investment office of The Olayan Group.
Obopay has also named K B Rajendran, Senior Vice President, Essar Global Limited and Robert G. Hottensen, Jr., Senior Vice President for Public Equity at Olayan America Corporation to their board of directors.
An engineering graduate from National Institute of Technology Calicut, K B Rajendran has more than seventeen years experience in telecom and payments businesses including Airtel, Enron Broadband, Sify and Venture Infotek. Rajendran commented, "We are excited to invest in Obopay. Since its launch Obopay has introduced significant mobile payments innovations in the U.S. and recently in India too. We look forward to working with Obopay to build upon the integration of the mobile phone into the lives of consumers worldwide."
Prior to joining Olayan America in 2005, Hottensen was a managing director at Goldman Sachs, heading their financial services research group. He is a recognized analyst in this field, who, over a 24-year career at Goldman Sachs, worked extensively on credit cards and payments globally and received top rankings in polls conducted by American Banker, The Wall Street Journal and Institutional Investor.
Ms. Realini remarked: "The last nine months have included tremendous growth, with new Obopay features, the expansion of existing partnerships and now this latest round of funding and the addition of Robert and K B's expertise to our board. We look forward to continuing to expand the mobile payments market in the U.S. and abroad."
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