Telstra invests in leading mobile apps provider Kony
Telstra has made a $US18.3 million strategic investment in Kony Solutions, Inc., – a leading U.S. mobile and multi-channel application platform provider.
Telstra Ventures Managing Director Mark Sherman said as well as taking a stake in the company, Telstra would offer Kony’s innovative pre-built applications and applications platform to business and enterprise customers.
Mr Sherman said the move aligned to Telstra’s strategy of developing new growth businesses and builds capability in Telstra’s domestic mobiles portfolio.
“Kony offers business and enterprise customers a library of innovative pre-built mobile applications including the Kony Platform that enables customers to write their own applications and deploy them across multiple channels simply and at low cost,” Mr Sherman said.
“For Telstra this is a win-win – we are investing in an innovative company and adding immediate value by being able to offer Kony’s products to our business and enterprise customers.
“Kony’s suite of applications complements our existing mobility portfolio and enhances our mobile and cloud services offering for customers.
“Workforces are becoming increasingly mobile so the ability to deploy these types of apps across devices and operating systems is fast becoming a non-negotiable business requirement. Kony's solutions will also help our business and enterprise customers create, quickly deploy and manage applications for their smartphone and tablet fleets.”
Kony’s CEO Raj Koneru said Telstra’s investment would help Kony expand into the Asia Pacific region more quickly and enable the company to leverage Telstra’s well established customer relationships.
“FY2014 is shaping up to be a huge year for us,” said Raj Koneru, Kony’s founder and CEO. “Telstra’s investment will enable us to further expand into the important Asia Pacific region, leverage their well-established customer channels, continue our cloud product development, and penetrate new global geographies to further solidify our domination in the mobile apps marketplace.”
Mr Sherman said Telstra Ventures has a three to five year plan to build an exciting investment portfolio of 20-30 companies.
“Our investments will be among the best emerging companies in the world each at varying stages of development,” he said. “We are already seeing some good success with investments such as Mandoe Media and Ooyala.
“Our team will continue to look for investment opportunities which fill gaps or accentuate opportunities for Telstra,” Mr Sherman said.
About Kony Solutions
Kony is the industry’s leading mobile and multichannel application platform and packaged applications provider. Kony develops a suite of customizable pre-built apps, the Kony Platform and a comprehensive enterprise mobility management solution, which give companies the confidence and control to quickly build apps once, deploy everywhere and manage them-- across all mobile devices and operating systems. Kony has 250 customers, including the largest global bank, and global brands such as Hyatt, Huntington National Bank, Konica Minolta, Schweppes, Tyco and Carl Zeiss.
In 2012 Kony was named a “Visionary” in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms (MADP) report. For more information, please visit the Kony website or connect with Kony on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
About Telstra Ventures
Telstra Ventures invests in breakthrough companies that are strategically important to Telstra. Its investment strategy focuses on high growth opportunities that offer technology and solutions which leverage Telstra’s assets and enable Telstra to offer new products and services to its customers. Based in Australia and Silicon Valley, Telstra Ventures works closely with quality entrepreneurs to build significant companies. Telstra Ventures is a corporate venture capital group founded in 2011 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Telstra Corporation.