Followap
Encyclopedia
Followap in 1999, was a leading provider of Presence and Instant Messaging solutions to the telecommunications industry. By the time it was acquired in 2006, it had over 17 mobile operators many of them tier-ones, serving a combined user base of over 200 million subscribers. Followap’s products enabled operators to establish advanced, interoperable presence-enhanced services, which were key for next-generation networks. Followap was active in industry standardization efforts in forums including OMA, IETF, 3GPP and the GSM Association
GSM Association
The GSM Association is an association of mobile operators and related companies devoted to supporting the standardizing, deployment and promotion of the GSM mobile telephone system...
.
Followap made history in 2000 by launching the first commercial mobile instant messaging service in partnership with Eircell, Ireland's largest operator. Other key customers of Followap included the Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
Group, Hutchison 3G
Hutchison 3G
3 is a brand name under which several UMTS-based mobile phone networks and Broadband Internet Providers are operated in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom...
Group, BT Group
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
, Turkcell
Turkcell
Turkcell is the leading mobile phone operator of Turkey, based in Istanbul. The company has 34.1 million subscribers as of June 30th, 2011.- Company background :...
, Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia is the largest Italian telecommunications company, also active in the media and manufacturing industries. Now a private concern listed on the Borsa Italiana, it was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most important of which was...
, Wind and Mobinil
Mobinil
Mobinil is one of Egypt's three mobile phone operators. Founded in 1998. The company is majority-owned and fully consolidated by France Télécom , which holds 71.25% of the shares in "Mobinil Telecom," the rest of the shares being held by Orascom Telecom...
.
Investors included Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...
and Carmel Ventures
Carmel Ventures
Carmel Ventures, established in 2000, is an Israeli venture capital fund with over $600 million under management. Carmel is focused on early stage companies in the fields of Software, Internet, Media, Communications, Semiconductors, and Consumer Electronics....
. The company was acquired by NeuStar
NeuStar
Neustar, Inc. is a provider of clearinghouse and directory services to the global communications and Internet industries.-History:Neustar was incorporated in Delaware in 1998. It started as a business unit within Lockheed Martin Corporation...
for $139M in November 2006.