Wubud, the mobile-based social networking start-up from Irish entrepreneur Paul Walsh, has just completed Angel funding with a £150,000 sterling (€200,000) investment from Bebo co-founder Paul Birch. The start-up, which has a working product but is still in development, has had Birch on board as an advisor with his initial early investment of £10,000 sterling bringing the total to £160,000 sterling.
“Wubud caught my eye because it enables people to communicate with their friends and family from their back pocket while on the go,” said Birch.
“By building it initially around the mobile app, Wubud can ensure that it delivers what people would want on their own mobile phone.”
While Wubud www.wubud.com/signup/ is a stealth start-up, it has been quietly demoed lately with operations manager Adrian McMahon paying a visit last week to an Open Coffee Club event and showing off its features.
Actively ‘twittering’ its progress across the web, Wubud founder and CEO Paul Walsh is using plenty of feedback (“Would love to hear what you’d like implemented on a social network application for your mobile phone”) and actively working on implementing child safety features (“We’d like to implement features that help protect minors. Display location only to guardians?).
However, the mobile social network, which is location-based and shows your status on a shared map that friends can see, is said to have an October launch and has been in talks with MySpace for possible integration.
“This investment is a huge validation of our hard work to date. Huge challenges remain, not least the continuing development of our mobile client and website,” said Walsh.
By Marie Boran
