Modu, the heavily-funded Israel-based modular phone manufacturer that enables you to slip a light mobile device into a variety of so-called “jackets” (think music players, other cellphones, car stereos, digital cameras, etc.), is prepping its big commercial launch for this year by unveiling its family of phones at the upcoming Mobile World Congress. The actual sales for the device will start at the beginning of next quarter.
Modu started teasing everyone in January last year, and revealed what it had in store a month after. Crunchgear’s John Biggs dubbed it cool but flawed, but this was all way before the company ever had something to show for its promises and - meanwhile - over $127 million in venture capital funding. Well, now they do.
Calcalist is reporting (Hebrew only) that Modu has brought in another $7M in funding courtesy of Qualcomm which as part of the agreement will also manufacture the Modu “core”.
Modu has had a whirlwind of a year, first debuting to much fanfare at last year’s Mobile World Congress, where we had a chance to sit with the company’s CEO, Dov Moran, for a 1-on-1 for a demo. The company then went on to raise a whopping $100M round. Then in November Modu announced a 33%, 88-employee downsizing in November.
Modu, an Israeli startup founded in 2007, is going to be adding $100 million to the $20 million in venture capital they’ve already raised, says Israeli newspaper The Globes. The company will create tiny modular phones that can be slipped into different device “jackets”— like an MP3 player, GPS, bigger cell phone, car stereo, or digital camera (see here for a demo video).
The round hasn’t closed yet, but clearly the details are leaking. The Globes isn’t naming the new investors but says that the company is being valued at $150 million pre-money, meaning they’re giving away a whopping 40% of the equity in this round. They must really need the money to get the product to market to take that kind of dilution.
Founder Dov Moran’s previous company, M-Systems, pioneered the concept of the USB flash drive and sold to SanDisk for $1.6 billion in 2006. See an interview with Moran here.
We just got out of an interview with Dov Moran, founder of Modu. As we suspected, the device is a module-based GSM system that includes a small, fully-functional phone and a set of “mates” or “jackets.” You can pop the phone in and out of different devices and add GSM functionality to almost anything, from GPS units to cameras. You’ll pay about 200 euro for a phone and two jackets and then a little extra for different devices.
The product will be very interesting to CE manufacturers in that it reduces to the time-to-market considerably and ensures they don’t have to go through FCC testing with every new mobile product. John at CrunchGear has a more detailed take on things but the idea is very compelling.
In an obvious attempt to generate buzz, mobile stealth startup Modu is circulating the teaser video below about its soon-to-launch product. (Perhaps in advance of a launch at Demo next week the Mobile World Congress in February?). We’ll bite and help spread the video because of who is behind the startup. CEO Dov Moran sold his previous company—M-Systems, which pioneered the concept of the USB flash drive—to SanDisk for $1.6 billion in 2006.
Now what’s Moran up to at Modu? The company recently changed its name from InFone Tech, an Israeli startup that raised $20 million in June, 2007 from Gemini Israel Funds and Genesis Partners.
Since Modu is inviting speculation as to what it is all about, here is mine: it looks to me like a mobile device, or possibly a broader platform, based on a removable flash drive that can be swapped from your cell phone to your car to your MP3 player to your laptop. Taking your music with you in a Modu flash drive would be one obvious application, but maybe the startup has grander ambitions than just music. Can you figure out what Modu does from the video below?
Update: I’ve received more information that suggests this is a cell phone/flash drive. That is, it has cellular capabilities and you can store your music, pictures, videos, and contacts on it. Plug it into your car and it becomes your phone and music player on the go. That device you see at the end of the video is the default device that you snap the flash drive/phone into. It has a one-inch screen is supposedly very power-efficient.
Modu, the heavily-funded Israel-based modular phone manufacturer that enables you to slip a light mobile device into a variety of so-called “jackets” (think music players, other cellphones, car stereos, digital cameras, etc.), is prepping its big commercial launch for this year by unveiling its family of phones at the upcoming Mobile World Congress. The actual sales for the device will start at the beginning of next quarter.
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