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Kajeet Phones in a Fresh $18M - cbl
Posted January 16, 2011
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By citybizlist Staff
BETHESDA -- According to an SEC filing, kajeet-a pay-as-you-go cell phone service for kids-has added $18.08 million to its venture financing, which now totals more than $82 million.
Founded by CEO in 2003,kajeet, with its kajeet Configurator, offers a suite of tools to help families customize and manage every aspect of their mobile phone experience. The kajeet service and phones are available at Best Buy, Limited Too and Longs Drugs Stores and on the company website.
In September 2007, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund led a $38.8 million Series B round that included Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Mumbai and Shanghai-based Bessemer Venture Partners, Boston and London-based Fidelity Ventures, Silicon Valley-based Gabriel Venture Partners and Menlo Park and Dallas-based InterWest Partners. In January of 2008, Chicago-based BlueCrest Capital Finance, L.P. provided $10 million in new debt financing, at which time kajeet reported about $64 million in funding.
Named in the filing were Neal and directors of DFJ Growth Fund, and Frederick W. W. Bolander of Gabriel Venture Partners.
Before kajeet, Neal served as CEO, vice chairman and director of VCampus Corporation, a provider of e-learning applications and services for students, businesspeople and government workers. Earlier he was at USinternetworking, Inc., where he launched, and led the AppHost (TM) business unit. He also worked at Global One Communications, LLC, an international joint venture of Sprint, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, was with the National Performance Review of the office of the Vice President of the United States.
SEC filing: http://tinyurl.com/5ufly5j
Bios
Randall S. Glein
Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund
Mr. Glein is currently a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund. His career spans more than 20 years as an investor and operating executive in the technology and media industries. Mr. Glein currently serves on the Board of kajeet and is activity involved with the firm's investments in Raydiance and UUSee.
Prior to DFJ Growth Fund, Mr. Glein was CFO of FeedBurner, a DFJ portfolio company acquired by Google. He was previously a Managing Director of Tribune Ventures and Corporate Vice President of Tribune Company, where he led early-stage investing and served on numerous portfolio company boards. Mr. Glein has also held principal investing positions with CID Equity Partners and Hughes New Ventures, where he participated in the founding investments for DIRECTV, Motient, and XM Radio.
Additionally, Mr. Glein served in senior operating positions with DIRECTV and Screenz, where he played key roles in their formation, development and growth.
Mr. Glein began his career as an engineer with GM Hughes Electronics and Martin Marietta. He holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School, MSEE from the University of Southern California, and BSEE with High Honors from the University of Florida.
Frederick W. W. Bolander
Gabriel Venture Partners
Rick Bolander is a Managing Partner at Gabriel Venture Partners. He has more than 12 years of experience in the venture capital industry. Having co-founded Gabriel Venture Partners in 1999, Rick sought to create a firm with a specific organizational structure and core competencies designed to achieve this goal of building the next generation of industry leaders by identifying the best entrepreneurs and working side by side with them to win. His strong venture capital record is a reflection of not only his effectiveness as a mentor, but also his ability to pick winning value propositions and market trends.
Rick focuses on investments involving digital media infrastructure and applications, communications, information technology, and the Internet. Rick has led 12 investments at Gabriel and was an early investor in companies such as Exodus Communications (IPO that began the hosted applications and data revolution), Placeware (M&A by Microsoft to become LiveMeeting, one of the leaders in web-conferencing that originated out of early MMO technology), and IPWireless (a 4G wireless solution powering mobile broadband with a large emphasis on mobile video for consumers). Rick's current focus is in the Digital Media realm with recent investments in web 2.0 plays like Chegg (Craig's List for college students), social networking mobile applications, as well as plays in virtual worlds.
He currently serves as non-executive chairman of AccessLine Holdings and is a board member of Chegg, Encentuate, Eyespot, IPWireless, kajeet, Neopath Networks, Persistent Systems, and Tapatap. He has also served on the boards of Arula Systems (acquired by Raritan), NetScaler (acquired by Citrix Systems) as well as on the public Boards of Concord Communications (acquired by Computer Associates) and Exodus Communications (NASDAQ: EXDS, IPO, then acquired by Savvis). Mr. Bolander is an advisor to The Infinity Venture Fund, a venture capital fund based in India. He is also a charter member of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE).
Prior to Gabriel Venture Partners, Rick spent seven years in various operational roles ranging from product development and operations management to regional marketing and sales management at AT&T/Lucent.
Rick received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan (summa cum laude) and he holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan where he taught computer architecture. Rick also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Also at citybizlist, see:
Kajeet Makes AlwaysOn's List of Top Media Tech Companies - CBL
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