20 July 2008

Weekend Watching:
An interview with Plazes founder, Felix Petersen

This week Nokia completed the acquisition of the Plazes, a small, privately-owned start-up company that’s based in Berlin with all of 13 employees.

Plazes technology is another important element for its web/service strategy under the Ovi brand and it will helps Nokia to accelerate its vision of bringing people and places closer together.

With Plazes and other recent acquisitions Nokia is clearly trying to offer the best solution for connecting people through the location-based services, maps and communities.

Plazes adds the elements of location to social networking through features that allow people to update their online presence with their current, past and future whereabouts; review their own and others' past activities; share their experiences and make plans with friends, who are then able to respond with comments and suggestions as well as their own location information. Members of Plazes are able to update their location through their laptop or mobile phone.

Plazes is a Swiss company that was founded in December 2005 with R&D is in Berlin. Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures invested €2.7m in its first round in February 2007.

In 2006, Plazes won seed financing from well-known angel investors Esther Dyson, Marc Andreessen) and Martin Varsavsky (FON founder).

About Plazes
Plazes AG is one of the pioneering web platforms for location sharing and publishing on the web today. Members of Plazes are able to update their location through their laptop or mobile phone, and update their online presence with their current, past and future whereabouts. That way Plazes provides location-based context and real-life value when coordinating with friends, family and business partners. Plazes AG is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland with a development office in Berlin, Germany. For additional information, please visit www.plazes.com.