Fortumo
 | |
| Mobile payment provider | |
| Industry |
Mobile payments Mobile communications Payments |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Tartu, Estonia |
Key people |
Martin Koppel, Chief Executive Officer Gerri Kodres, Chief Business Officer Rain Rannu, Founder |
| Products |
Electronic payments Mobile payments |
Number of employees | 80 |
| Slogan | Don't Miss Out On Revenue From Users Without Credit Cards |
| Website | Fortumo.com |
Fortumo is an international mobile payment provider. The company offers various mobile payment solutions for web services and mobile applications. Fortumo services allow customers to make mobile payments in 78 countries on six continents, with a strong focus on emerging markets. Fortumo started in 2007 as a spin-off of the mobile services company Mobi Solutions, and currently employs over 70 people in its offices in Estonia (Tartu), USA (San Francisco), China (Beijing & Shanghai), India (Delhi & Mumbai) and Singapore. As of November 2014, over 116 thousand developers have signed up to Fortumo's services.
Services
Fortumo provides mobile payment solutions for web, mobile web and native app monetization.
- Web payment solution is used by online games and social networks to enable purchase of monthly memberships, virtual goods and additional content, mostly used as part of the freemium business model.
- Mobile web payment solution is powered by HTML5, which makes it compatible with many cross-platform games and applications.
- Native in-app purchasing SDK for Android is available for native apps running on Android, Nook and J2ME. Unlike other payment options, the SDK supports payments while the phone or tablet device is offline.
- Native in-app purchasing SDK for Windows Phone & Windows 8 is available for native apps running on Windows Phone and Windows 8. Fortumo is a partner of Microsoft in the Windows Phone app ecosystem.[1]
- Developer API for advanced integrations and white-labelling, giving developers full control over the payment flow and user experience.
Partners
The company has partnered with many leading industry names, such as Rovio,[2] Badoo, Digital Chocolate and others. At the same time Fortumo is the preferred payment platform of many small and medium sized developers thanks to its instant self-service setup and absence of activation or monthly fees. In March 2013, Barnes & Noble announced plans to start providing in-app purchasing for Nook tablets through Fortumo.[3] In June 2013, the company announced that it plans to start preloading its customers games and apps to ZTE smartphones; similar partnerships with Oppo and Gionee were announced by the company in November 2014.[4][5] Fortumo's native in-application purchase SDK is available to developers using Marmalade and Corona cross-platform development tools since June 2013.[6][7]
Intel Capital and Greycroft Partners
In February 2013, Fortumo announced it had completed a growth round of financing with the first external shareholders - Intel Capital and Greycroft Partners - joining the company. Although financial details about the funding were not disclosed, TechCrunch reported approximately 10 million USD as the size of the deal. Fortumo co-founder Rain Rannu explained the reasons for bringing in additional investors: "Working with Intel Capital and Greycroft will help us to pursue additional growth opportunities, including strategic partnerships and acquisitions".[8]
Carrier Billing for Physical Goods
In September 2014, Fortumo launched an online store for selling Rovio plush toys to SingTel customers using carrier billing. The project where users charge physical item to their phone bill is the first of its kind in the carrier billing industry and Fortumo has reported seeing up to 5x lower shopping cart abandonment rates compared to credit-card based online billing solutions.[9][10]
Recognition and awards
- In 2014, the winner of the Estonian American Innovation Award [11]
- In 2013, Fortumo won a Meffy for an innovative business model for Android app distribution [12]
- In 2012, 2011 and 2010, Best Entrepreneur by Tartu City Government [13]
- In 2011, Fortumo won the highest Estonian recognition to entrepreneurs - Entrepreneurship Award 2011 (and also the award for Exporter 2011) given out by Enterprise Estonia.[14]
- In 2009, Mobile Monday Peer Awards 2009 Finalist[15][16]
- In 2009, Winner of the Best Nordic Mobile Startup award [17]
See Also
- Mobile payments
- Mobile commerce service provider
References
- ↑
- ↑ Fortumo cracks open the (Angry Birds) Piggy Bank to let Android devs offer carrier billing via SMS
- ↑ Barnes & Noble’s Nook to get in-app purchases “soon”
- ↑ Fortumo & ZTE Partner For App Billing And In-App Purchasing
- ↑ Fortumo inks direct carrier billing deals with Oppo Electronics, Gionee
- ↑ Guest Post: Increasing App Revenue with Fortumo Mobile Payments
- ↑ Marmalade Supports Fortumo In-App Purchasing
- ↑ "Fortumo Raises ~$10M From Intel Capital, Greycroft To Take On Bango And More In Carrier Billing; Inks Deals With China Mobile And Vodafone".
- ↑ "Fortumo moves from virtual to physical goods".
- ↑ "Fortumo Blog: Mobile Operator Billing and Physical Goods? Now Live with Fortumo, Rovio & Singtel".
- ↑ "NEWSFLASH: The Winner and Runner-Up of the Estonian American Innovation Award Announced!". AmCham.
- ↑ "Meffys 2013 Winners Announced". MEF.
- ↑ Awardwinners from Tartu
- ↑ Estonia's Enterprises for 2011 are Fortumo and EMT
- ↑ "Fortumo is a Mobile Monday Awards finalist".
- ↑ "Fortumo at the Mobile Monday Awards finals". ArcticStartup.
- ↑ Best Nordic Mobile Startup 2009