ActiveSky Receives $21 Million in Funding

ActiveSky (www.activesky.com) secured $21.8 million in funding from investors led by U.S.-based JK&B Capital.

ActiveSky, founded in October 1999, produces a media player for use on PDAs and other mobile devices. Currently the player is available for free download from ActiveSky's Web site. ActiveSky has also demonstrated server technology for streaming to wireless devices.

"ActiveSky has a vision and, most importantly, a breakthrough technology that will revolutionize the emerging domain of wireless Internet connectivity,'' Ali Shadman, executive member, JK&B Capital, said. "We like ActiveSky's approach of optimizing their high quality multimedia solution for a wireless world which demands low battery and bandwidth consumption. We are pleased to be a financial and business partner.''

ActiveSky recently signed a partnership with Handspring to supply a multimedia player for Visor Prism and Platinum units.

"More rich-media content for mobile devices has been encoded in the ActiveSky format than any other technology. ActiveSky has been shipping PDA-based products for six months and is ready to take the lead in wireless mobile imaging,'' said Scott Marquardt, chief executive officer of ActiveSky.Additional investors include: Star Ventures (Germany/Israel), Comverse (United States/Israel), Innovation Capital (Australia), Sumitomo (Japan), PacRim Venture Partners (United States) and Waypoint Ventures (United States).