$40 Million More: Motricity Lands Another Round of Venture Capital, Pushing It Past $120M

Motricity

is planning to hire even more people, beef up internal operations and looking for possible acquisitions after landing another $40 million in venture capital.

Motricity, a developer of mobile content and applications, has now raised more than $120 million in the history of the firms that now make up the Durham-based company. Pinpoint Communications and PowerbyHand merged to form Motricity.

The latest round comes on the heels of a $30-million round raised in July of last year. Motricity raised $27 million in 2004 following the merger of the two companies.

Motricity will use the funds to hire additional personnel and also to strengthen internal operations in order to support new clients coming on board, a Motricity executive told WRAL Local Tech Wire.

The company is also on the lookout for possible mergers or acquisition targets. Motricity executives will not discuss whether the firm is considering an initial public offering.

Motricity already employs more than 300 people, with between 270-280 based in Durham. Its headcount has nearly doubled over the past year.

Advanced Equities led the round. Also participating were New Enterprise Associates, Technology Crossover Ventures and Motricity's North Carolina investors, including the Wakefield Group.

"The new customers that we've recently won are seen as leaders in the mobile operator, device manufacturer and media & entertainment industries, and we have others that we have yet to announce," said Ryan Wuerch, chairman and chief executive officer at Motricity, in a statement. "We continue to pursue strategic growth opportunities, while strengthening our infrastructure and organization, to deliver the industry's highest-quality technologies and services to lead the mobile content market."

Motricity works with some of the biggest names in mobile networks and entertainment as well as BET and Sony Ericsson, two new customers.

Motricity is based in Research Triangle Park but will move into new headquarters at the American Tobacco Complex in Durham this summer. It also has offices in San Diego, London, Munich and Beijing.