Motricity

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Motricity was formed in 2001 by Ryan Wuerch to provide integrated mobile content solutions for handheld and mobile devices. Originally formed as PowerByHand, the company changed its name to Motricity on October 2004 after its merger with Pinpoint Networks.

The company currently has more than 300 employees and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, with offices in Los Angeles, London, and Munich.

[edit] Corporate history

In 2001, Wuerch founded PowerByHand, a company that provides content, information and education for handheld and mobile devices. PowerByHand acquired a number of leading commercial internet sites, including PalmGear.com in October 2002, eReader.com in September 2003, and PocketGear.com, and Smartphone.net in March 2004.

In April 2004, PowerByHand merged with Pinpoint Networks, a provider of software and services for the management and delivery of mobile data services, that was based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina in an attempt to create market leadership for integrated mobile content solutions.

In October 2004, Motricity closed USD$27 million in venture funding, led by Silicon Valley-based Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). In that same month, the company changed its name to Motricity and announced the acquisition of Mobile2Day.de, an European mobile content portal. The Mobile2Day.de acquisition complemented Motricity's content base of more than 60,000 applications by adding an additional 6,000 Symbian applications and localized cross-platform content for the European market, while expanding its network of online mobile content storefronts.

Three more major private funding followed:

USD$30 million in July 2005, from Chicago–based Advanced Equities Inc., as well as such existing investors as Technology Crossover Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, and Intel Capital;
$40 million in April 2006, led by Advanced Equities Inc., with participation from other existing investors, including New Enterprise Associates and Technology Crossover Ventures;
USD$32 million in August 2006, led by Advanced Equities Inc., with participation from other existing investors.

These rounds raised the company's total funding to over USD$150 million, one of the largest amounts of capital ever raised by a private company in North Carolina.