I got to know Ragnar several years ago and like his unstoppable entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm from day one. In 2005 Ragnar and Petra decided to develop software for smart phones and use advertising as a way to 'charge' customers in lieu of charging a download fee. After two years of development and thinking they brought together many industry partners (publishers, ad networks, developers) to bring them into the Smaato mobile open advertising platform.

Now they got rewarded for the risk they took with a commitment from Aeris Capital:

Smaato, a pioneering provider of mobile advertising platform technology announced that it has closed a $ 3.5 million financing round. Smaato was successful in attracting prominent smart angel investors from international media, advertising, mobile and the financial community. Silicon Valley based legal firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advised on the funding and participated with an investment.

"We are convinced Smaato is at the fore front of this new marketing opportunity. Mobile advertising will be in hyper growth mode for the coming years and we believe Smaato is one of the leading pioneers in this field with an experienced management team and an excellent track record in the recent past. We will be actively supporting Smaato to position the company as a leader in the mobile advertising space," stated Uwe R. Feuersenger, CEO of aeris CAPITAL who also participated in this financing round.

Smaato's mobile advertising platform SOMA gets increased demand from ad-sales networks, developers and mobile operators. Smaato delivers groundbreaking ways to connect new generation software applications for mobile devices with targeted advertising.

Recently, Smaato announced the new version of their mobile ad-server platform SOMA (Smaato Open Mobile Advertising) that supports mobile Web and WAP advertising delivery.

"Since founding Smaato we are experiencing a growing interest in targeted mobile advertising. With Smaato we are at the forefront for developing innovative advertising solutions to reach the mobile consumer. With the support of our international investors and our advisory board of experienced and globally connected individuals, we will continue to expand our reach within the industry on a global scale", commented Ragnar Kruse, Co-Founder and CEO of Smaato Inc.

Congratulations Ragnar and Petra!