Opportunity and innovation: mBlox and the excitement of Singapore

This sponsored post is produced by Brian Johnson, SVP, Global Sales, mBlox.

The story of mBlox in Singapore is one that starts with the industriousness of the people there. Five years ago we acquired the South East Asian network assets of a company called Zed and hired the local employees. We initially had about 12 staff situated there – a workforce which has now grown to 45 spanning business development, marketing and operations.  Also, Singapore is now home to our global, tier-1 support and network monitoring resource, a crucial division that supports our core business.

Anyone who’s worked in Singapore will be familiar with the quality of Singapore’s workforce. Their work ethic and attitude is second to none. My personal opinion is that this is rooted in Singapore’s fantastic education system, where young people are encouraged to embrace the world of commerce and to function within the global marketplace from an early age.

In the US and Western Europe, mBlox enjoys a prominent position as one of the leaders in mobile interaction and payments, and a major area of focus for the year ahead is now building on the company’s presence in South East Asia. We are in a great position to achieve this, using our next generation mobile marketing solution mBlox Engage, to spearhead growth in the area, and leveraging on our partnership with EDBI, a strategic global investor who takes an active interest in our Asian expansion.  EDBI’s knowledge of the industry in Singapore and Asia, has been invaluable in assisting our recruitment efforts for our local team.  Their extensive global network has also been instrumental in business development for mBlox Engage by connecting us to potential clients, such as media companies, all around Asia.

Key to this growth opportunity is Singapore itself.  It is, from a corporate perspective, a launch point for broader expansion into South East Asia (SEA). Singapore is a well-respected business capital, while the physical location, infrastructure and currency make it an ideal hub for regional growth. The potential for this regional growth is considerable: across the globe, we’re seeing demand for mobile commerce skyrocket (with Forrester predicting this to reach $10 billion by the end of 2012 on an annual growth rate of 39%). It’s a particularly exciting time in SEA, where there’s a real hunger and appetite for mobile technology. It also helps that Singapore and SEA are hotbeds for mobile entrepreneurs, bursting with exciting innovations and technology development.

Few places carry the promise of business opportunity and innovation that Singapore does – and that’s why mBlox, a leader in the fast moving world of mobile technology, is excited about our future opportunities for growth in this region.

About mBlox:
mBlox is a mobile interaction and payment specialist that provides enterprises and solution providers with the fastest and most reliable way to engage with their customers on mobile devices without compromising on security. mBlox delivers a combination of software and services that allow businesses and solution providers to create mobile solutions with the greatest possible reach.  mBlox Engage is a cloud based solution delivering the next generation of mobile marketing engagement. By offering offer real time, location-based analytics and reporting, it enables brands to achieve new levels of insight into consumer behaviour on mobile – facilitating the best possible content delivery and strengthening the relationship between the brand and end user. Backed by leading venture capital firms, mBlox offers a network of more than 800 operators in over 180 countries, covering over 90% of the world’s population.

mBlox is a portfolio company of Singapore’s EDBI.

About EDBI:
EDBI is a leading strategic global investment firm headquartered in Singapore. A value adding investor, EDBI creates sustainable and synergistic partnerships with its portfolio companies, leveraging its broad network of resources and experience to facilitate growth in Asia and the world.

IDA — the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore — has teamed up with VentureBeat to explore Singapore’s potential as an Asian launchpad in a series of posts that culminated in a live video webinar on March 22. This post is part of that series. To read the full series and view a recording of the webinar, go here.