Conveneer Gets $4.5m to Make Phone Content Accessible Online

With on-deck portals, SMS links sent from Web sites, over-the-air downloads and sideloading, it’s pretty easy for mobile users to get whatever content they want on their cell phones. What’s not so easy is gaining access to that content from a device other than the phone it’s stored on without a USB cable and lengthy sync process.

Conveneer is out to change all that with its Mikz (“mix”) platform. Due for commercial launch later this year, Mikz provides access to mobile phone content over standard Internet protocols using the company’s proprietary overlay network.

According to Conveneer board member Tom Barton, each phone is assigned its own unique URL. When a user types his phone’s URL into any Web browser, he has access to all the files and applications on his phone. The phone content can also be integrated with Internet-based data using standard, open APIs such as RSS and HTML and various Web services. Essentially, he says, Mikz treats the cell phone like a Web server.

(More on Mikz after the jump.)

Barton’s firm, Broken Arrow Venture Capital, participated in Conveneer’s recent $4.5 million funding round that was led by Swedish foundation Industrifonden.

Conveneer is looking to partner with handset makers and wireless carriers so they can offer Mikz-based services to their end customers. In the future, Barton hopes to see a consumer get a URL along with a mobile phone number when purchasing a new phone.

So far, the company has signed Qualcomm and is in talks with around five carriers, who’ve provided “extremely positive feedback,” Barton says. Conveneer is also partnering with Accenture to help with the carrier implementations.

The company expects to hit the market with a production release before the end of the year.

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