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PRESS RELEASE
NextStage Capital Invests In Sapphire Mobile Systems
Completes Bridge Round in Anticipation of Series A Investment
Philadelphia, PA – February 5, 2007
– NextStage Capital, an early stage venture capital fund focused on Mid-Atlantic technology companies, announced today its investment in Sapphire Mobile Systems. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Sapphire Mobile Systems provides financial institutions the ability to offer secure, easy-to-use mobile banking and payments to anyone with a mobile phone. This bridge round investment was completed in anticipation of an upcoming Series A Preferred Investment.
Sapphire Mobile Systems works in partnership with banks, processors, merchants and other financial institutions to offer mobile banking and payment solutions. Through its revolutionary Phire® Mobile Debit NetworkTM, Sapphire allows users to initiate financial transactions via their mobile phone, including balance inquiries, account transfer requests, automated alerts and notifications as well as person-to-person payments, bill payments and point-of-sale purchases. Phire's patent-pending technology ensures the highest level of security and makes it easy for users to get started by using ubiquitous SMS technology that requires no additional hardware or software.
"There is tremendous opportunity in this market, as banks and other financial institutions recognize the mobile phone platform as the largest and most pervasive channel in history for financial transactions," said Dan McKinney, Managing Partner at NextStage Capital. "To create a mobile banking platform of this magnitude – while leveraging all the existing banking standards, infrastructure, and capabilities – is a huge opportunity. We invested in Sapphire not only because of the huge market opportunity but because based on our thorough due diligence, Sapphire is by far the best company in this space based on numerous factors."
"NextStage Capital clearly impressed us throughout their diligence process with their knowledge of the payments space along with their ability to dive as deep as necessary to understand the nuances of our unique business model and strategy," said Richard A. Rasansky, founding CEO of Sapphire Mobile Systems. "I do not know of any other venture fund in this region that is more tuned in to what it takes to be a respected leader in early stage investing."
About NextStage Capital
NextStage Capital, L.P. is an early stage venture capital fund focused on investing in undiscovered software and hardware technology and/or services companies in the Mid-Atlantic region. NextStage Capital's investment approach is to find entrepreneurs with solid track records who offer a unique and powerful value proposition to customers in growing market sectors. In addition to providing strategic counsel, NextStage Capital offers its portfolio companies value-added recruiting services at no charge through its partnership with TWC Group, a recruitment process outsourcing company with more than a decade of building management teams for many of the region's most successful venture-backed companies. For more information on NextStage Capital, please visit www.nextstagecapital.com. Information on TWC Group can be found at www.twcgroup.com.
About Sapphire Mobile Systems
Sapphire's Phire® mobile banking and payments network enables any bank or prepaid debit card issuer to provide their customers with instant access to their accounts using the Short Message Service (SMS) that is available on every mobile handset. The Phire Mobile Debit NetworkTM allows consumers to securely send cash in real time to anyone with a mobile phone to check balances, transfer money between their accounts and pay bills through the bank's existing bill pay system, all without requiring the consumer to upgrade their hardware or install new software. Merchants can accept Phire payments at significant savings versus credit cards and can generate revenue as cash loading stations for prepaid debit accounts. Financial institution connectivity to the Phire Mobile Debit Network is 'bank friendly,' requiring little or no integration to a bank's infrastructure. In short, the Phire Mobile Debit Network turns any mobile phone into a mobile ATM. Sapphire, headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, is privately funded.
For more information, visit http://info.phire.com.
Media Contact:
Sally Ting
NextStage Capital
sally@nextstagecapital.com
610-635-0101
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