Skydeck gets boost for service that reminds you to call your Ma

Venture Beat — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:59:43 -0400

Skydeck, the online service that helps track who you call and text with your mobile phone, has raised a $3 million first round of financing to expand its service onto various mobile devices.

Skydeck launched at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat conference in July, and won an award for boldest idea. It creates a sort of social network for your phone calls — showing whom you call the most and when.

It does things like remind you to call your Mom if you are used to calling her frequently, but haven’t called her in a while. (This “reminder to call” feature was actually asked for by one of VentureBeat’s writers, Dean Takahashi, during the MobileBeat conference).

But it also gives you historic record of who you called and when, something many mobile phone companies make very painful to track. It’s bold because it enters directly onto the turf held and coveted by the powerful carriers — something most startups have tried to avoid.

It provides things like real-time tracking of minutes used in your plan, the cost of each call, etc.

The investor is Los Angeles-based Saban Ventures, the venture capital arm of Saban Capital Group. Saban’s Craig Cooper, who co-founded Boost Mobile (sold to Nextel) and helped run or advise companies like Thumbplay, YouMail and EBT Mobile China, will take a board seat.

Skydeck has now raised $4 million to date. It raised $1 million in a previously undisclosed angel
round last year.

Jason Devitt, CEO of Skydeck, said to expect some major feature releases in the “November timeframe.” He also said the company has had “tremendous inbound interest” from carriers around the world — now nearing a total of 20 carriers — but that talks were all in the early stages. He said this suggests his service is not necessarily competitive with carriers, but rather can be seen as providing carriers with a set of features they may want to give their users.

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Skydeck gets boost for service that reminds you to call your Ma