Intrasonics is an innovation-led technology company. Its aim is to help viewers engage directly with their favourite media programmes and advertised brands by getting TV talking directly to mobiles.

The market opportunity

The growth of the mobile phone has been nothing short of extraordinary. There are 2.5 billion users worldwide, with ownership rates exceeding 100% in some developed countries. Coupled to this breathtaking growth is the continuing expansion of mobile functionality and capability.

Consumers are increasingly using internet on their mobile as European operators see 20% of their revenues coming from data over the past year. Revenue from mobile entertainment in 2006 was worth $17b and is forecast to grow to $77b by 2011.

Advertising continues as a major global business worth $372b annually. However, due to the very nature of traditional advertising as a broad based communications technique, there has always been a debate about how much of this spend hits the target. Advertisers are recognising the incredibly personal nature of the mobile and are discovering new ways to accurately target audiences via the consumer’s most personalised possession.

Interactive advertising and TV gaming is a growing trend with 96% of all Sky digital households in the UK using interactive TV in 2006. Advertisers have seen very positive response rates with Land Rover converting 25% of all test drive leads from interactive TV into sales.

There is no doubt that the time is ready to take interactive TV and bring it onto the mobile. Intrasonics stands at the forefront of this new market opportunity.

A leading player in mobile-TV interactivity, Intrasonics is ideally placed to exploit the new market that has been created by mobile–TV interactivity. Using acoustic datacomms, it has developed an innovative, technology rich solution which is simple, easily understood and fun for the consumer.

Its intellectual property is well protected with a number of international patents and the technology has delivered highly encouraging results in a series of end-to-end broadcast tests.

The company is driven by a management team all of whom have deep technical and market insights in acoustic datacomms and who are passionate about making it succeed. Based on the outskirts of Cambridge in the UK, the company is well placed to tap into the remarkable wealth of scientific, engineering and technological expertise that has established itself in the region over the past 25 years.

Towards the end of 2007, the commercial potential for Intrasonics' technology was recognised with its acquisition by Dutch private investors with close links to the telecoms, media and entertainment space with the companies' growth fully private equity funded.