GetJar, the independent, cross-platform app store provider, this morning announced that it has raised $25 million in Series C funding from Tiger Global Management and longtime backer Accel Partners. The round brings the total raised to $42 million.
I caught up with founder and CEO Ilja Laurs at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to talk about how his business has grown since the last time I did a video interview with the charismatic entrepreneur, now almost two years ago.
Since then, GetJar has managed to secure a leading position among the top 5 mobile app store operators, playing the same field as giants like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Nokia.
In the past year, the number of app downloads Get\jar registers per month has quadrupled, and the company has grown along with it; they now boasts triple the number of employees than last year.
I asked Laurs why GetJar needed the extra capital, how he evaluates the competitive landscape in the mobile app store business and what he thinks about the Nokia/Microsoft alliance.
GetJar is the world¹s largest free app store with over 2 billion downloads to date. The company distributes more than 350,000 mobile applications for Android and 395,000 developers have registered with GetJar to distribute their apps. In 2011, GetJar was named as one of the ‘Ones To Watch’ by GigaOM Europe. GetJar is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Seattle, the UK and Lithuania. For more information, please visit http://www.getjar.com and follow us @GetJar.
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
Boston, MA
