Firefly Mobile, which sells a small mobile device for very young children with strict controls on the which numbers they can call and receive calls from, has raised $3 million more to restart.
VentureWire has the news this morning (sub required).
The company had high hopes as it went to market last year, its concept appeared compelling. But Firefly also chose to offer its own wireless service and customer service, using the infrastructure of other carriers to act as an independent so-called Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). The costs of customer service proved expensive, hurting the company’s performance.
So the company’s original investors, Sevin Rosen Funds and ComVentures, which had helped pump $26 million into the company last year, chose not to invest again.
GIV Venture Partners and Leo Capital Holdings are the remaining investors, and according to VentureWire.
11:33 pm
VentureBeat » Kajeet’s phone for kids, will it avoid pitfalls of predecessors? said:
[...] The Bethesda, Maryland company is brushing aside the grim evidence provided by string of disasters at other companies trying something similar. Amp’d Mobile was the most high-profile recent case of a so-called MVNO (or Mobile Virtual Network Operator) that saw its business fall part because of high costs. Firefly, a venture-backed company that served teens and younger kids with a phone, also struggled. It was forced to restart again when its original investors bailed on the company. [...]