March 6, 2006

TeleNav Secures $30 Million in Private Funding

TeleNav Inc., the leading provider of wireless location-based services (LBS), which includes GPS navigation and Mobile Resource Management, today announced the closing of a $30 million private equity financing led by Silicon Valley venture firm Menlo Ventures with participation by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners and existing investors, iGlobe partners and Sycamore Ventures.

The funding follows rapid growth in TeleNav's customer base and increased adoption of location-based services during 2005. This new financing will be used to continue TeleNav's growth, supporting investments in product development, sales, marketing and product innovation.

"As the LBS and mobile data services markets continue to grow, consumers and businesses alike are quickly realizing the benefits of GPS navigation and tracking services converged into the cellular phones they already carry," said Shawn Carolan, managing director at Menlo Ventures. "We carefully analyzed the market and feel that TeleNav is the clear leader in the space due to its innovative and proven technology, sales execution and experienced management team."

"The market for location-based services continues to grow and the demand for services such as GPS navigation on mobile devices is increasing," said Marina Amoroso, wireless/mobile analyst at the Yankee Group. "We feel that the total data revenue enabled by location-based services will grow dramatically within the next few years and TeleNav clearly leads the consumer location-based services market."

TeleNav was the first company to launch a mobile phone GPS navigation service in the US through its partnership with Nextel (now Sprint Nextel). (See our related story) Last year, TeleNav expanded its service to Sprint Nextel's CDMA network, Boost Mobile and China Mobile. Over the next 12 months, TeleNav plans to rollout its services in South America, Europe and Southeast Asia, and further expand in North America and China.

The company was also first to market with TeleNavTrack, a Mobile Resource Management application that provides businesses with a highly integrated and affordable GPS tracking, navigation and field management solution.

"This funding is validation of our leadership in the emerging mobile GPS space," said Dr. HP Jin, President and CEO at TeleNav. "We will use these funds to grow our team more aggressively in order to meet market demand. We are looking for talented engineers, world class marketing, sales and finance professionals to grow the company to a new level very quickly. We will continue our strong emphasis on innovative ideas, and this funding allows us to fuel our creativity and execution in releasing new products to market."