Genaker

From La Vanguardia (2009-06-25)
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MOBILE WEB 2.0: The name of the adventure

In a city with a lack of big telecom operators, three telecom pioneers -Genaker, Voz Telecom and Sit Mobile- have joined strenghts to launch their mobile technology project.

Genaker, Voz Telecom and Sit Mobile, three companies of the telecom area, came togheter to develop a technology that will alow to bring VoIP to mobile phones and to offer consumers an integrated telecom service including calls, videoconference, messaging and fax among others. Everything accesible from every phone and computer, leveraging the flat rates that provide access to the Internet, including mobile connections.

 

• Acc1Ó, Generalitat's R&D agency has granted a 1 M loan to the group.

Miquel Teixidor, CEO and founder of Genaker, explains that the three companies have stablished the Mobile Web 2.0 Consortium to develop the new business line, and will invest 1,5 M euros in the next three years. The consortium has gained a 1 M euros loan (67% of investment) from Acc1Ó, the R&D promotion agency from Generalitat (Catalan government), that will allow the three partners to avoid credit restrictions that are crippling many investigation projects.

Xavier Casajoana, Voz Telecom CEO, explains that the consortium combines three companies with three different but complementary expertise scopes: Genaker is a reference company in technology development for mobile operators; Sit Mobile develops massive applications for mobile devices, from contents to marketing campaings, and Voz Telecom renders phone and Internet services over IP to SMEs, through computers and fixed phones. "These services have a good demand  because they allow a company to reduce its telecom expenses by 70%, turning it into 139 euros per month without any initial investment in switchboards or other equipments. Our consortium challenge is to extend those unified telecom services to mobile phones", a challenge that faces significant technical difficulties but that it's in great demand from companies.

Genaker, Voz Telecom and Sit Mobile agree in being driven by cutting-edge executives dedicated to telecom area in Catalunya, with a turnover that exceeds, as a whole, the 10 M euros. Voz Telecom, founded in 2003 by former executives of Tiscali, employs 35 persons and turnovers 4 M per year. Genaker, created in 2003 by the former investigation center that Nokia had in Barcelona, counts with 20 employees and turnovers 1,1 M, while Sit Mobile, that turnovers 5,5 M euros from its mobile advertising services, employs 50 persons and operates right now in Italy, United Kingdom, Chile and India.