Press Releases

London, UK and Helsinki, Finland: Xtract, the leader in social advertising intelligence today announced it has closed new funding of EUR 3,5 Million led by Creandum, a leading early stage technology investor together with renewed commitment from existing investor ETF III, advised by Eqvitec Partners.

Xtract answers a real need in the advertising industry which is making the advertising in social media and mobile effective. By using Xtract, customers have seen the average ad income increase with as much as 82% and in mobile campaigns response rates have increased with 30%.

“Our solutions provide genuinely innovative ways to ensure delivery of the right audience to the right commercial message at the right time and to accurately report on the effectiveness of any campaign in an automated way, something that up until now was not possible,” said Kimmo Kiviluoto, CEO of Xtract. ”We are delighted to have Creandum join the company which clearly underlines the confidence in our offering and in the management team,” he added.

Staffan Helgesson, Managing General Partner at Creandum, said: “We are very impressed with Xtract’s success in the telecom sector where leading mobile operators use Xtract to increase revenues and reduce churn. We also believe that Xtract’s approach is unique from the traditional approach in mass advertising. The transition from the traditional static advertising to the more dynamic advertising is going to happen and the brand managers and advertising agencies understanding this change will be the ones surviving the transition to digital advertising. Xtract has a unique position to be one of the leaders driving this change.”

Xtract board member Juha Mikkola of Eqvitec Partners said he was pleased by Creandum’s decision to invest. “This investment opportunity had a lot of demand and clearly marks the very interesting market and expansion opportunity that Xtract represents in the fast growing social intelligence market”

About Xtract
Xtract is the global trusted partner and innovator in Social Advertising Intelligence.
We have the technology and competence to turn large user data into cash flow. Our solutions create accurate and automated consumer profiles for mobile and online advertisers based on social interactions, behavioural and demographic data.

Xtract operates across Europe and Asia, working with over 50 companies with intensive customer data ranging from global leaders such as Nokia, T-Mobile and Vodafone to innovative challengers such as BLYK and Fonecta. Headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland and London, UK. www.xtract.com

About Creandum
Creandum is a Nordic venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology companies. The firm has 120 million Euros under management and is today the fastest growing independent partnership of its kind in the Nordic region. Creandum invests in innovative companies in high growth markets led by outstanding entrepreneurs. All investment professionals at Creandum has started companies or been part of successful startups. For more information, please visit www.creandum.com.

About Eqvitec Partners Oy
Eqvitec Partners Oy is one of the largest technology focused venture capital and private equity firms in Northern Europe. The company was founded in 1997 and employs 15 investments professionals in Helsinki and Stockholm. Eqvitec Partners currently advises five funds with a total capital base of 440 million euros. The funds invest in technology companies in all phases from start-up to buyouts. At the moment the funds have investments in 40 companies and have carried out 35 exits. More information can be found at www.eqvitec.com.

London, UK and Helsinki, Finland - Xtract is the winner of the European IT Excellence Award for Business Intelligence. This award recognises business solutions rewarding excellence in the development and the delivery of real end-user solutions.

The entry by Xtract for its client BLYK showed not only a real understanding of what the client was trying to achieve but also a level of skill and excellence in solution delivery that the judges felt was a winning formulae in the Business Intelligence category, commented John Chapman, awards organiser and Editorial Director of IT Europa.

Xtract’s Social Links is the world’s first commercially available software for analysing social network interactions within large scale mobile communication networks. Social Links ability to deliver a far higher return on investments for its clients has been proven in a series of trials and full-scale projects with mobile operators around the globe.

In 2007 the implications of digital media, marketing and communications took global centre stage, with the understanding that targeted digital marketing and advertising communications can be significantly more effective, thereby delivering better marketing ROI. Nowhere was this more evident than in mobile advertising and marketing.

All mobile communications with the right tools can aggregate into delivering deep insight into customers, needs and preferences, which can then be monetised. Such insight is called Social Intelligence.

About Xtract Social Links

Xtract Social Links transforms the latest scientific findings in the area of social network analysis into automated tools for real-time customer profiling and targeting of marketing activities - such as targeted advertising, churn retention and upselling. It contains tools for combining the network information with predictive modelling, relevant for specific business applications including reporting and visualization tools - making it a complete product for the mobile operator’s use.

Xtract Social Links identifies the underlying network structures within the subscriber base, divides it into communities and classifies subscribers based on their social influence. The result is a completely new method of customer insight and marketing capability. With new, self-learning customer profiles through multi-dimensional analytics of real operator customer mobile operators can enjoy major business benefits. These range from the reduction of churn through efficient campaigns, to rapid increase of revenues from intelligent new customer acquisition and product launch campaigns.

About Xtract

Xtract is the global trusted partner and innovator in Social Marketing and Advertising Intelligence. It enables digital media and mobile industries to monetise their digital communities and social networks. Xtract is capable of taking large and multiple raw data flows and turn those data flows into unique Social Marketing and Social Advertising Intelligence. Through the marriage of deep science, advanced mathematics and leading edge knowledge into social networks, Xtract is able to use that unique intelligence via a patented set of tools and process to enable its clients for example to:

1. Deliver highly targeted advertising across the 3 screens
2. Increase the (value) cost of ads delivered to the mobile platform
3. Reduce Churn
4. Increase customer loyalty
5. Launch new products and services into the marketplace at greater speed and lower cost
6. Enable highly effective virality
7. Effectively monetise digital communities
8. Significantly reduce marketing costs
   Xtract operates across Europe and Asia, working with over 50 blue-chip companies with intensive customer data.

Headquarters are in London, UK and the R&D centre of excellence in Helsinki, Finland.

http://www.xtract.com

London, UK and Helsinki, Finland - In 2007 the implications of digital media, marketing and communications took global centre stage, with the understanding that targeted digital marketing and advertising communications can be significantly more effective, thereby delivering better marketing ROI. Nowhere was this more evident than in mobile advertising and marketing.

All mobile communications with the right tools can aggregate into delivering deep insight into customers’, needs and preferences, which can then be monetised. Such insight is called Social Intelligence.

Xtract’s Social Links Product, is the world’s first commercially available software for analysing social network interactions within large scale mobile communication networks. Social Links ability to deliver a far higher ROI for its clients has been proven in a series of trials and full-scale projects with mobile operators around the globe. And Xtract’s Social Links Product has recently been upgraded to deliver more valuable and efficient marketing ROI.

What does Xtract Social Links do? It transforms the latest scientific findings in the area of social network analysis into automated tools for real-time customer profiling and targeting of marketing activities - such as targeted advertising, churn retention and upselling. It contains tools for combining the network information with predictive modelling, relevant for specific business applications including reporting and visualization tools ? making it a complete product for the mobile operator’s use.

“With the appropriate combination of customers’ profile, lifestyle, social linkages and behaviour, it is possible to leverage word-of-mouth and social influence in marketing,” says Kimmo Kiviluoto, CEO of Xtract. “This new form of marketing is able to be more relevant, timely and contextual and therefore proven to be better accepted by the consumer. With Xtract’s Social Links, it is possible to pro-actively offer benefits, services and products to the end users that fit their needs today but also be able to identify when their segment or profile need changes. This, most certainly enables an end user centric approach to providing what’s needed instead of what’s on offer approach”.

Xtract Social Links identifies the underlying network structures within the subscriber base, divides it into communities and classifies subscribers based on their social influence. The result is a completely new method of customer insight and marketing capability. With new, self-learning customer profiles through multi-dimensional analytics of real operator customer mobile operators can enjoy major business benefits. These range from the reduction of churn through efficient campaigns, to rapid increase of revenues from intelligent new customer acquisition and product launch campaigns.

Designed to Scale up

The Xtract Social Links is a software product based on standard Java technologies and components. The new, just released version, Xtract Social links 2.5, incorporates storage for the data for analysis shipping with an off the shelf Greenplum data warehouse solution, using standard PostgreSQL, which means that connections to any SQL compliant databases are straightforward.

The new Xtract Social Links 2.5 is now able to visualise the social network within a client customer base, visualise project campaign data on that network and drill down on specific communities.
Delivering unique intelligence, which can then be monetised.

Reporting is also greatly enhanced and in addition to standard templates, ad hoc reporting capabilities are now available.

The solution is fully scalable using commodity hardware and thus able to accommodate any amount of data processing requirements. The Xtract Social Links Product thus provides a proven and robust platform for further development of Xtract Social Advertising Intelligence solutions.

About Xtract

Xtract is the global trusted partner and innovator in Social Marketing and Advertising Intelligence. It enables digital media and mobile industries to monetise their digital communities and social networks. Xtract is capable of taking large and multiple raw data flows and turn those data flows into unique Social Marketing and Social Advertising Intelligence. Through the marriage of deep science, advanced mathematics and leading edge knowledge into social networks, Xtract is able to use that unique intelligence via a patented set of tools and process to enable its clients for example to:

1. Deliver highly targeted advertising across the 3 screens
2. Increase the (value) cost of ads delivered to the mobile platform
3. Reduce Churn
4. Increase customer loyalty
5. Launch new products and services into the marketplace at greater speed and lower cost
6. Enable highly effective virality
7. Effectively monetise digital communities
8. Significantly reduce marketing costs

Xtract operates across Europe and Asia, working with over 50 blue-chip companies with intensive customer data. Headquarters are in London, UK and the R&D centre of excellence in Helsinki, Finland.

London, UK and Helsinki, Finland: The GSM Association (GSMA) has announced that Xtract is one of the top ten finalists for the 2008 Mobile Innovation Global Awards. These awards encourage breakthrough technology, applications and services in the mobile industry by bringing together innovative mobile products, industry investors and mobile operators. Xtract’s social intelligence software solution, Social Links, was chosen one of the two Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructures/Platforms out of hundreds of competing solutions.

So, what does Xtract Social Links do? It transforms the latest scientific findings in the area of social network analysis into automated tools for real-time customer profiling and targeting of marketing activities. It contains tools for combining the network information with predictive modelling, relevant for specific business applications including reporting and visualization tools - making it a complete product for the mobile operator’s use.

Xtract Social Links identifies the underlying network structures within the subscriber base, divides it into communities and classifies subscribers based on their social influence. The result is a completely new layer of customer insight. With new, self-learning customer profiles through multi-dimensional analytics of real operator customer mobile operators can enjoy major business benefits. These range from the reduction of churn through efficient campaigns, to rapid increase of revenues from intelligent new customer acquisition and product launch campaigns.

What does this mean to the end user? Spam free, relevant and engaging mobile marketing and advertising!

Come and see us at the Mobile World Congress Barcelona! As a finalist in this category, Xtract will pitch our products and services to an expert judging panel at the Marketplace on Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th February. The winner from each category will be presented at the event, with one Overall Mobile Innovation Global Award Winner being presented at the Global Mobile Awards 2008 Gala Dinner at the National Palace in Barcelona on the evening of Tuesday February 11. Our demo booth at: IZ11.

About Xtract

Xtract is a trusted partner and innovator in social advertising intelligence. It enables media and mobile industries to monetise their digital communities. The company?s core strengths are in social network analytics and process optimisation. Xtract has developed a unique set of automated solutions, technologies and services that based on social interactions and behaviour data can create accurate and real time consumer profiles for mobile and online advertisers.

Xtract operates across Europe and Asia, working with over 50 blue-chip companies with intensive customer data. Headquarters are in London, UK and the R&D centre of excellence in Helsinki, Finland.

Helsinki, Finland and Barcelona, Spain - MobileMonday, the global community of mobile innovators, visionaries, and developers, will present the most exciting young mobile industry innovators at the MobileMonday Peer Awards during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain on February 11, 2008. This year, the Peer Awards will showcase early stage and emerging start-up companies. The event, which will be held at Espacio Movistar, is expected to attract participants from over 30 countries. Mr. Pekka Ala-Pietilä, former president at Nokia Corporation and currently chief executive officer of Blyk Corporation, a virtual mobile operator in the UK, will be the keynote speaker.

“We are set to showcase fresh innovations in the MobileMonday event, as the Mobile World Congress is mostly for industry giants,” said Mr. Jari Tammisto, chief executive officer of MobileMonday Global.

“The MobileMonday Peer Awards are recognised by the industry as one of THE essential events for innovations in the mobile industry. We received a lot of great feedback from last year’s event, we?re proud and excited to host another edition of this event,” said Mr. Rudy De Waele, organizer of MobileMonday Barcelona.

This year’s competitors for the Peer Awards will compete for the MoMo community award, audience award and expert jury award in two categories’ early stage start-ups, for companies founded in 2007, and emerging start-ups, for companies founded between 2005 and 2007. The competition will be judged by a group of experts. The jury members are:

- Carlos Domingo, General Director, Telefonica I+D;

- Ann Mei Chang, Mobile Engineering Director, Google;

- Bena Roberts, Founder and Chief Analyst at BKI Media / GoMo News;

- Russell Buckley, Managing Director, AdMob Europe / Vice-Chairman of MMA’s EMEA;

- Carlo Longino, TechDirt Wireless / Business 2.0 / Mobhappy;

- Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist, Vodafone Group;

- Madamohan Rao, Editor, The Asia-Pacific Internet Handbook;

- Michael Wendell, General partner, Nexit Ventures;

- Jouko Ahvenainen., Chief Operating Officer, Xtract;

- Peter Vesterbacka - Founder at Some Bazaar / Co-founder at MobileMonday

- Sirous Kavehercy, Market Development Director, Acision

- Master of Ceremony is once again Mrs. Caroline Lewko, from the Wireless Industry Partnership.

Last year’s Barcelona event attracted 23 competitors, and the expert jury awarded the MoMo community award to Mobile Complete, the audience award to Plazes, and the expert jury award to Realeyes 3D.

This year’s winners at the MobileMonday Peer Awards Barcelona will also be invited to participate in the Innovation Pad activities at the MobileMonday Global Summit in conjunction with the World Congress on IT in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 18-22, 2008.

Additional information is available at www.mobilemondaybarcelona.com.