Bruce V. Bigelow in San Diego contributed to this story.
With $11 million from a Series A that was announced yesterday, New York-based Enterproid is moving closer to a full release of its app, which allows users to set their smartphones for business or personal use. Comcast Ventures (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CMCSA]]) led the round, with participation from Google Ventures (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GOOG]]) and Qualcomm Ventures, the CDMA investment arm of San Diego wireless giant Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]).
Andrew Toy, CEO and co-founder of Enterproid, says his company has raised more than $13 million to date, including a seed round with investors that included NYC Seed, Genacast Ventures, and High Peaks Venture Partners. Toy says the latest funding will go towards expanding the current staff of 30—which is spread among offices in New York, Hong Kong, and London—and technology development.
Enterproid, founded in early 2010, created the Divide Platform, which lets users switch their mobile devices from personal to business roles. When in business mode, smartphones and tablets can be monitored and controlled by employers’ IT departments to only operate authorized apps and services. That allows employees to use their own devices on the job rather than rely on company-supplied smartphones. The user can switch back to personal mode at any time and resume full use of their devices.
“More people already have smartphones that they prefer to use on the job,” Toy says. “However, IT departments still have risk management and data-loss prevention needs.” In other words, employers can control the sensitive company information their employees can access from their devices by using the Divide Platform. The app can also restrict the use of functions that are not business-related. Translation: No more Angry Birds while on the job. “The company might turn off [certain] apps and SMS messaging because they are not used for work,” Toy says. Employees can opt-in to a feature that allows their employers to monitor when they switch back and forth between personal and business mode.
Enterproid has so far tested its app with companies in enterprise trials, Toy says, and plans to announce the full release for Divide Platform on Android devices in the coming weeks. An Apple iOS version of the app is in the works, but Toy would not give any timetable for its release.
Earlier this year, investor Qualcomm also named Enterproid as the grand prize winner of its second QPrize international venture investment competition. The incentive prize competition awarded a total of $250,000 to the year-old startup founded by three former Morgan Stanley IT managers.
