Category: Articles
Unwired Nation’s Partnership with Rackspace
by Laura Lorek, SiliconHillsNews
At the Starbucks across the street from Rackspace, Stacey Zuniga, a founder of Unwired Nation, last Friday talked about the company’s latest partnership. “We’re here to enable the enablers,” Zuniga said.
Austin-based Unwired Nation creates a mobile app platform for companies. It recently joined the Rackspace Partner Program to offer mobile apps as a service to select Rackspace customers.
Zuniga was on his way to a meeting with Andrew Schroepfer, vice president of enterprise strategy at Rackspace, at its San Antonio headquarters, to talk about the program.
Every company wants a mobile app for its business, Zuniga said. Unwired Nation can deliver uniquely branded apps quickly and cheaply, he said.
The problem is that for many large companies like car dealerships or pharmacies, it’s difficult for them to offer their customers a mobile version of … Read More »
Unwired Nation highlights tool to convert Web pages for smartphones
Two years after recapitalizing, local software developer Unwired Nation Inc. is refashioning its business model for the mobile market.
The Austin-based company, founded in 2004, was initially designed to automate notifying customers by telephone. The new strategy is to market an online tool called Kinita that’s designed to convert Web pages to most smartphone platforms.
Shifting Unwired Nation’s focus, however, took some financial and technological creativity. Four groups of investors have invested $8.2 million in the company since it was launched, and most of them wanted to cash out after a bid by a publicly traded company to acquire Unwired Nation fell through in 2008.
So CEO Eric Smith, with backing from Houston-based venture capital firm DFJ Mercury, bought it back by restructuring debt agreements with the initial investors. He’s now looking to raise $1.5 million in expansion capital from angel investors and … Read More »
Unwired Nation hooks up with Houston firm
Austin Technology Incubator alum Unwired Nation Inc. is solidifying its place in the burgeoning Mobile-Apps-As-A-Service market.
The startup — which sells an online tool designed to convert Web pages to most smartphone platforms — snagged an agreement with Houston-based ethosIQ as its newest certified mobile solutions provider. The company will used Unwired’s Kinita platform to garner and accelerate deals with field service organizations, financial firms and utilities.
The deal is the latest in efforts to refashion the company. Founded in 2004, last year executives wisely changed strategies from automated phone notifications to the Kinita platform. The company had raised $8.2 million from investors that wanted to cash out after an acquisition bid fell through. Clickhere to read an Austin Business Journalstory on successful efforts to reform the business.
Unwired Nation brings on capital, people
Christopher Calnan Staff Writer - Austin Business Journal
One year after shifting its business model, software developer Unwired Nation Inc. is bringing in the capital and the talent to see it through an expansion.
The Austin-based company, founded in 2004, was initially set up to automate a company’s telephone calls to customers. It has since developed an online tool called Kinita that converts Web pages to most smartphone platforms.
In December, Unwired Nation received $1 million of a planned $6.5 million financing from 15 investors, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It also hired a group of veteran tech executives, such as former venture capitalist Jay Holtz as chief operating officer and former Cedar Point Communications Inc. executive Steve Hencinski as senior sales executive.
The build out is happening just as tablet devices … Read More »
Austin’s Unwired Nation raises $6.5 million for expansion in mobile market
By Lori Hawkins
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Eighteen months after changing its business focus, Austin software maker Unwired Nation has raised $6.5 million for expansion in the mobile market.
The company, founded in 2004, originally developed software that let companies automate their telephone calls to customers. For instance, it teamed with eBay in 2006 to send auction and bidding activity by phone calls to customers in North America.
But in 2009, Unwired Nation shifted away from that model, which had been slow to take off, to focus on the surging mobile app market.
The following year, the company launched its Mobile Cloud Platform, which lets customers convert Web pages to apps for most smartphone platforms. Unwired Nation targets software companies that need to convert their Web applications to run on iPhones, Android devices and tablet computers.
“A single company can have … Read More »
