Oz raises $34M more for mobile messaging

OZ, a Montreal consumer mobile messaging company, said it has raised USD$34 million in a second round of financing.

Leading the second round is the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, a Canadian institutional fund manager. VantagePoint Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm which led OZ’s first $27.3 million round of financing, also participated, along with Fonds de Solidarite (FTQ), a Canadian capital investment fund.

The company’s software, downloaded onto cellphones, enables instant messaging. Oz provides the mobile IM software to carriers and phone manufacturers.

The company has now raised $61.3 million since 2004, and it’s not clear how well it is doing. The company has had a rocky history. It was restarted in 2004, after a post-Internet bubble dive. Previously, it had gobbled up an additional $25 million in funding.

The company cites a Yankee Group report, which says the consumer mobile messaging market is expected to grow from over $50 billion in revenues in 2006 to over $67 billion by 2009.

We wrote about the company here.

Instant messaging continued

Take OZ Communications, a company that was dissolved last year after eating through about $25 million in backing. It’s now back in a second reincarnation — with help from Silicon Valley money. Yesterday OZ said it received $27.3 million from local firm VantagePoint Venture Partners.