Fixed Mobile Convergence

Fixed mobile convergence is a busy space, and this past week was no exception, so let’s get caught up on some of the important news.

TMC’s (News - Alert) Ashok Bindra wrote that smartphone security company Lookout Mobile Security secured $40 million in funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz.  

Lookout said that Jeff Jordan from Andreessen Horowitz will join the company’s board of directors. Current investors Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners (News - Alert) and Index Ventures also participated in the round.

The new investment will be used to broaden the company’s product offerings, fuel global expansion and continue building a world-class team, Lookout said. It protects over 12 million smartphone and tablet users worldwide from malware, spyware and phishing attempts. Lookout also backs up personal data and can quickly locate a lost or stolen device.

The Lookout app is powered by Lookout’s Mobile Threat Network, which constantly analyzes global threat data to identify and quickly block new threats with over-the-air app updates.

Threat detection that would have taken days now happens in minutes; effectively protecting users before they even know a threat exists, according to Lookout.

Mandira Srivastava reported that to enhance the personal security of the millions of families and to help parents to keep tabs on loved ones through mobile alerts and online activity,  Location Labs, a provider of mobile and location-based family safety products, announced the launch of Safely.

Safely is the evolution of Location Labs' industry leading family location services that enable parents to locate millions of kids every year via partnerships with nearly all of the Tier 1 wireless carriers in the U.S. Safely offers the widespread adoption of Location Labs' mobile technology, which is being pre-loaded on tens of millions of smartphones.

“The creation of Safely was a natural next step for Location Labs. Our team has been laser focused on addressing the needs of families with our mobile and location-based services,” said Tasso Roumeliotis (News - Alert), CEO of Location Labs. “Keeping up with kids as they engage with new technologies like smartphones and Facebook is a daunting task for parents. Safely answers parents' primal need to protect their families and gives them valuable services they can trust.”

Beecher Tuttle noted that as the capital of the tech world, Silicon Valley plays host to innovators in a number of markets, including many of today's leading hardware and software giants as well a wide array of startups.

TMC recently headed out to San Jose to catch up with some of these thriving technology companies to hear more about their current products and services as well as what they are working on for the future.

Editorial director Erik Linask (News - Alert) had the chance to sit down with Bhavin Shah, VP of marketing and business development at Polaris Wireless, to talk about his company's specialty: software-based wireless location solutions.

As Shah explained, Polaris targets two kinds of customers – wireless operators and government agencies – and provides them with E911 emergency call services and consumer-focused, location-based services.

And this past week TMC had the news that CWR Mobility, a provider of mobility products for Microsoft (News - Alert) Dynamics CRM, and Relevant CRM, a provider of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, announced their partnership.

The partnership enables Relevant CRM to offer mobile CRM based on software from CWR Mobility. As part of this new business relationship, Relevant CRM has joined the CWR mobility partner program as a registered partner.