"ATLANTA -- iKobo, Inc. ( http://www.ikobo.com/ ), a global financial services company which provides online electronic payment and remittance services, today announced closing its first institutional round of funding. The company raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A financing to be used for product development and management recruitment. The round was led by Atlanta-based Total Technology Ventures, with participation from Council Ventures of Nashville and from existing investors Global Bank of Commerce, based in Antigua; iKobo chairman John Chamberlin; and iKobo co-founder Emeka Ohuche. The company was advised by Palo Alto based law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati with respect to the financing. WS Investments LLC, their investment arm, also participated in the round.

An August 2002 Celent Communications report cites the global person-to-person money transfer market at $150 billion, with 70% of customers engaging in repeat transactions. The global remittance industry has a 10% growth rate with card-based money transfer service models, the fastest-growing segment, projected to grab an 11% market share by 2006.

"iKobo is a high-growth company with a compound annual growth rate of over 400% between 2001 and 2004," said Emeka Ohuche, co-founder, iKobo, Inc. "Our investors recognize the huge potential and gains to be reaped by building out our technology infrastructure so we can rapidly scale to meet continued strong customer demand," he added."