Barcelona, May 22nd 2012 – yuilop, the free-to-all social communication service, announced today that it has closed a 4.5 million Euro ($6M) Series A round led by Hamburg-based Shortcut, and co-investors, the Russian VC Bright Capital (part of RU.COM) and private telecom investor Bruno Ducharme, as well as continued participation of existing investor Nauta Capital.

The funds will be used to drive yuilop’s aggressive international expansion and continuous improvement of the product.

yuilop’s mission is to make mobile communication free, regardless of addressee, destination, app or device.  The company offers a free-to-all social communication service - app based - for all of the major mobile platforms which integrates Facebook Chat, IM, and free and unlimited SMS text messaging to any phone, anywhere in the world, with support for free calls coming soon.

Unlike other social messaging or VoIP apps, yuilop is able to offer free and full SMS functionality (and in future, free calls to mobiles and fixed lines) through being ad-supported and by employing gamification via yuilop’s unique points-based “energy” system which rewards users based on how they use the app.

The service launched first in Germany last year, becoming the number one free Social Networking app in the iOS App Store, and more recently expanded to Spain, where it is on course to achieve the same.

New board appointments

Martin Ostermayer will represent shortcut on yuilop’s board, while Vadim Tarasov from BrightCapital also joins the board. In addition, Bruno Ducharme will join the board as advisor.

Jochen Doppelhammer, CEO of yuilop: “We are delighted to have attracted such a high caliber group of investors, including the continued support of Nauta, which shows a lot of confidence in yuilop’s mission to make mobile communication free-to-all, regardless of channel, device or carrier.”

Martin Ostermayer, Partner at Shortcut: “yuilop is founded by a team of experienced entrepreneurs who have a proven track record of disrupting the telecoms industry, and this coupled with great technology and an ambitious mission, fits perfectly with our investment strategy which focuses on international startups specializing in the fields of Internet, Mobile, Games, and Social Media.”

Additional notes to editors

yuilop is co-founded by ex-KPN Spain Founder & CEO Jochen Doppelhammer, who also led the mobile brand simyo to become the fastest growing and number one MVNO in Spain, together with ex-KPN Spain CSO Tono Brusola.

yuilop is headquartered in Barcelona with a development center in the south of Spain.

In December 2010, yuilop announced its first funding round, a one million Euro seed investment by Barcelona/Boston-based Nauta Capital, a VC fund targeting early stage technology companies in Europe and US.

About Nauta Capital

Nauta Capital (www.nautacapital.com) manages three funds and has offices in Barcelona and Boston. Nauta recently launched its third fund, Nauta III, and has a total of $230M under management. Nauta invests from $1M to $10M per company, mainly in three technology verticals: wireless/mobility, enterprise SW / SaaS / Security, and ecommerce / Internet. Nauta targets companies for investment in very early stage (Seed Capital) up to more advanced stages of development (Series A and B). Nauta actively invests in Western Europe and the US.

About Shortcut

Shortcut Ventures (www.shortcut.vc) is a German Venture Capital Enterprise created by founders for founders. The main focus of Shortcut Ventures investment strategy is on international startups specializing in the fields of Internet, Mobile, Games, and Social Media. Along with the financial support, firms in the portfolio are also provided with access to founder knowledge and know-how. Shortcut Ventures is managed by Dirk Freise, Martin Ostermayer, and Thorsten Rehling, entrepreneurs and founders of multiple companies such as blau.de and handy.de. The enterprise’s main investor is the Dutch telecommunications corporation, KPN.

About Bright Capital

Bright Capital (www.bright-capital.com) is an independent venture capital firm that invests globally in a wide range of promising companies solving problems in a variety of clean technology, industrial bio, telecom/electronics and it markets. apart from the investment, bright capital provides portfolio companies with access to the Russian and cis-market through its network of connections to the largest Russian industrial companies.

About Bruno Ducharme

Bruno founded and led TIW, a mobile operator with operations in Central and Eastern Europe. He now invests in telecommunications projects, such as mobile operators, mobile technology companies, satellite operators and fiber optic deployment projects.