Prism Venture Partners, which recently raised $250-million for a new fund, is investing $4-million with TD Capital Ventures in Everypoint, which wireless "info-tainment" applications for carriers. The Boston-based company will launch a soccer application next month in Germany and the U.K. that will provide live content such as scores, news and other information. The financing will be used to hire more people in Europe and develop more sports applications. The deal is just the latest in a flurry of telecom financings completed in recent months. TelcoTrash has a list of some of the more noteworthy deals.
The money raised by Everypoint is more evidence that the focus on ARPU among wireless carriers is alive and well. With penetration rates in Europe well above 90%, most of the revenue growth will come from fee-based services. In North America, the market still has room for subscriber growth with the U.S. at 65% penetration and Canada at 50%. The National Post had a story in Monday's paper about how Loblaw, Canada's leading grocery chain, plans to move into the wireless market through an MVNO deal with Bell Mobility.