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oneTXT Completes $2 Million Series A, Names Lucy Hood Independent Board Director
Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:00am EDT
NEW YORK–(Business Wire)–
oneTXT, a social media payment platform, today announced that it has closed $2
million in Series A financing. Metamorphic Ventures, New York City, led the
round, joined by KPG Ventures of San Francisco, and New York Angels Fund.
Individual angel investors also participated, including David Hirsch, formerly
at Google; Geoffrey Judge, co-founder of 24/7 Real Media (now part of WPP);
Roger Ehrenberg, former president and CEO of DB Advisors, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG; and Mark Michel, formerly Group Head at TD
Capital, TD Bank’s private equity fund focused on the media and communications
sectors.
Based in Manhattan`s advertising district, with offices in downtown San
Francisco, oneTXT (www.oneTXT.com) provides a payments processing alternative
for social networks, online games, participation TV shows, and other social
media. oneTXT enables social media and entertainment companies to accept
payments, create loyalty programs, and send marketing messages without a third
party owning the information or the relationship.
“oneTXT has built an integrated solution that has the potential to transform the
way social media thinks of transactions solutions,” said Roger Wood, Chairman
and CEO of oneTXT. “Online transactions solutions like iTunes and Amazon`s
1-Click are optimized for e-commerce. oneTXT approaches the marketplace with a
belief that transactions between audience members and the social media brand
itself are the true business model for all social media. Our hypothesis is that
the payments world of tomorrow will look very different from the one which made
PayPal a juggernaut with eBay`s momentum.”
The company also announced that Lucy Hood has joined as independent board
director. A pioneer in the participation TV segment of social media, Hood was
recently named the Executive Director of the USC Marshall Business School
Institute for Communication Technology Management (CTM). Previously, she served
as CEO of Jamba and was a key architect of News Corporation`s mobile strategy.
Under Hood`s leadership, Jamba`s reach extended to one billion people in 25
languages, offering the content from Universal Music, Warner Music, MTV,
Sony/BMG, Electronic Arts and Disney. Hood was a key executive in launching
numerous technology businesses at Fox and News Corp, including Fox Pay
Television, Fox.com, FX Cable and the News Corp Content Group. Hood and her team
created many industry firsts and led the groundbreaking “American Idol” mobile
efforts, which introduced text messaging to mass media.
“We are very pleased to have Lucy join our board. Given Lucy`s successful track
record of introducing interactive innovations, we believe she will add
significant value to help us grow our business,” said Lewis Gersh, founder of
Metamorphic Ventures.
“KPG Ventures quickly recognized the promise of transactions within apps on
social media sites. Lucy adds a critical customer acquisition perspective that
complements the experience that KPG Ventures and Metamorphic already have in
transaction processing,” said Dave Hills, General Partner of KPG Ventures.
In a related announcement today, oneTXT has appointed former iVillage CTO and
SVP Richard Caccappolo as president and chief operating officer.
