{"id":580933,"date":"2010-05-26T21:02:09","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T01:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"tag:contentnext.com,2010-05-27:article\/419-boku-raises-more-money-from-new-advisors-andreessen-horowitz"},"modified":"2010-05-26T21:02:09","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T01:02:09","slug":"boku-raises-more-money-from-new-advisors-andreessen-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/580933","title":{"rendered":"Boku Raises More Money From New Advisors Andreessen Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is more about the connections than it is the money, but mobile payments company Boku has raised even more<\/em> money following its $25 million round in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mobile payments space is hot right now with lots of start-ups looking to be the PayPal of mobile. Of course, they’ll have to compete against not only PayPal, but other financial behemoths, like MasterCard. Consider this funding event a combination of both money and brain power to fight that battle. <\/p>\n

The undisclosed round is coming from Andreessen Horowitz, the firm founded by Netscape-Co-Founders Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz. The two investors, who have also placed bets in such companies as Zynga and Skype, will become strategic advisors to the San Francisco company. In addition, Boku has appointed two new executives to the team, including David Yoo, the former SVP and Chief Product Officer at AT&T (NYSE: T<\/a>) Interactive, and Kevin Grant, former VP of Sales for Mobi TV. Yoo will become the SVP of Strategy and Grant will be the SVP of Sales.\n<\/p>\n

Boku, which launched in June 2009, had previously raised $38 million and has been focusing on helping game and application developers charge for virtual goods on social networks. It claims that its payment service, called Paymo, accounted for nearly 100 percent of the top applications for virtual goods and currencies purchased on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Boku said that the two new executives have been brought on board to tackle one of the biggest hurdles in the mobile payments space: reducing fees charged by carriers to make selling physical goods more feasible. In a release, Yoo said: \u201cMobile payments for goods and services, be they virtual, digital or physical are still in the early stages of growth. Carriers have a tremendous opportunity to generate revenue and increase ARPU as fees come down.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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