October 21st 2009
aka-aki braves the Crisis and raises fresh Capital
Two Investors provide Berlin-based Start-up with Money for its Expansion

BERLIN/PARIS. With this second bigger round of investment aka-aki raises several million euros. With the amount aka-aki is solidly financed. Besides present lead-investor CREATHOR VENTURE, for this round, INNOVACOM, the leading French VC focused on IT, could be won as an investor. The original team of 8 founders together stays the biggest shareholder of the company. READ MORE (PDF)

May 26th 2009
Welcome on board!
Gabriel Palomino becomes new Chief Technical Officer at aka-aki

BERLIN – Gabriel Palomino has experience in the mobile space since December 2000. He successfully developed roles as Manager Director, Business Development, Producer and Lead Developer. Involved in projects related to LBS, Social, Mobile Multimedia, carrier portals and mobile video games. He is an award-winning entrepreneur, co-founder of a Vodafone Live! Videogames Content Provider Company. At aka-aki he will now be responsible of all the technical development of our service. Be it the Java software for mobiles, iPhone application, our community website, the database and server environment or the expansion to other software platforms and operating systems.

So far his career took him around Europe. He is founder and used to be CEO of Wapaa Mobile Entertainment Software. At Livedoor Interactive he was a successful producer and business developer to work together with the biggest players on the Spanish mobile market. At Gameloft in Barcelona and Probability PLC in London he coordinated the developement teams for mobile gaming applications. And it was him who brought as “Head of Mobile” the application Rummble to the mobile devices. Now aka-aki is very proud to have attracted him for a new challenge in Berlin.

And how did we do this, Mr Palomino? “”aka-aki is like a refreshing meal with select ingredients – intelligent management, filled with cutting edge technology and served on witty marketing. A funky business that I’m very proud to join and be part of its successful expansion.”

We are looking forward to working together!

May 6th 2009
aka-aki Winner for Best Mobile Social Network in The 13th Annual Webby Awards
Berlin based start-up company wins both Webby Awards and People’s Voice Awards in its category

BERLIN/NEW YORK – The 13th Annual Webby Awards named aka-aki as Best Mobile Social Network of the year.
aka-aki will be honored at a star-studded ceremony hosted by Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers on June 8th in New York City. On June 9th, fans will be able to watch the ceremony, including aka- aki’s five-word speech, at the official Webby Awards YouTube Channel. A full list of both Webby Awards and People’s Voice Awards winners can be found at: http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=13 READ MORE (PDF)

April 15th 2009
aka-aki Nominated for Best Mobile Social Networking Site in the 13th Annual Webby Awards
Fans Can Vote Online to Help aka-aki Win Internet’s Top Honor at http://pv.webbyawards.com

BERLIN/NEW YORK. Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. “Nominees like aka-aki are setting the standard for innovation and creativity on the Internet,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards. “It is an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the nearly 10,000 entries we received this year.”

“The Webby Awards can really be considered “The Oscars” of the web industry. Former winners include the biggest names on the Internet. Even being a nominee is a big success and great honour for our young company,” said Stefanie Hoffmann, CEO of aka-aki, just after the team had received the good news from New York. READ MORE (PDF)

February 24th 2009
Social Networks Unite to Enable Mobile Location Sharing

Dublin. Leading mobile social software developers today publicly announced an agreement to enable their 30 million users to share location information and interact between networks. Until now users have not been able to share their location across different social networks.

The alliance, named OSLO (Open Sharing of Location-based Objects) includes many of the pioneers of mobile social networking and location-based social software. The alliance’s founding members include aka-aki, Belysio, Buddycloud, Locle, Mobiluck, Moximity, Nulaz, Palringo, Rummble, Service2Media, Skout, Tooio and WAYN, with more in discussion to join. READ MORE (PDF)

February 18th 2009
Discover people nearby with your iPhone or iPod touch
aka-aki is now available for free download from Apple’s iTunes Store

Berlin. aka-aki gives profile information on the people you meet in real life – and can now be used with iPhone or iPod touch as well! The free software can be found on the iTunes Store and conveniently be installed on all iPhone models and iPod touch.

The special feature: aka-aki is different from other location aware networking software for Apple’s mobile devices that can only communicate with each other. You won’t be on an island when using aka-aki on an i-device because aka-aki for iPhones and iPod Touch can get in contact with aka-aki members with other phones as well, and vice versa. READ MORE (PDF)

February 2nd 2009
Customers of major German network operator E-Plus use aka-aki without mobile internet costs
Networking software can be reached via the beta2go portal

Customers of the E-Plus group of brands can use the aka-aki mobile software now without being charged for the internet connection of their mobile phone.

November 2nd 2008
aka-aki blasts the 20 Meter chains
Thanks to new technology, the service on the cell phone now  also gives information about people who are outside bluetooth range

Berlin. The new version of the aka-aki cell phone application, which is now available for free download, not only shows those who are nearby to other members of the cell phone community. In addition,  the users are now also informed about those who are “within walking distance”, “in the city” or “in the region”.

This has been made possible because most newer mobile phones can transfer information on their approximate location in the mobile phone network. aka-aki employs this information and thereby enhances
the horizon for the discovery of new people underway in their daily lives. READ MORE (PDF)

July 11th 2008
aka-aki raises fresh capital
Creathor Venture Fund invests seven-digit amount in the social network for the cell phone

Berlin. The aka-aki networks GmbH continues the successful cooperation with Creathor Venture. Along with a private investor a seven-digit amount will be provided. Right from the founding stage the VC company based in Bad Homburg supported the young founders with start-up financing.
Less than four months after the official start of aka-aki’s mobile community the second round of financing has been closed.

“Now we can get started and take off”, says aka-aki managing director Stefanie Hoffmann happily after the signing of the contracts. “We will enlarge the team. From August 15 colleagues will work on the development and marketing of our service in our office in Berlin. It’s a great pleasure to move forward with the same investors. The cooperation has been highly inspiring and uncomplicated. We are very proud of the confidence that is entrusted in us.” READ MORE (PDF)

March 7th 2008
aka-aki wins award for most ground breaking idea at CeBIT 2008
Berlin-based startup is this year’s winner of the Innovator’s Pitch of German industry association BITKOM

Hannover. It took the aka-aki CEO Gabriel Yoran three minutes to convince the jury of the “Innovator’s Pitch 2008“ final. In the end aka-aki’s idea of a social network for the streets prevailed. „I am very proud of our young team of founders“ says Yoran. „The award is yet another sign that that we’re on the right path with our idea. It highly energizes us to work even harder for the public launch of our service at the end of March.“ All in all, aka-aki stood out against 40 rivals in this year’s competition. READ MORE (PDF)

December 19th 2007
aka-aki closes first round financing
Creathor Venture Fund invests in novel cell phone service

Shortly before turn of the year aka-aki, the social service for the cell phone, has successfully closed its first round financing. Creathor Venture Fund and a private business angel now hold shares of the Berlin start-up. The raised capital will be used for further development of aka-aki’s location-based online service for mobile devices. READ MORE (PDF)