Kony
Company: Kony, San Mateo, CA
Entry Submitted By: Affect Strategies
Company Description: Kony and the Kony Mobile Application Platform™ enable Fortune 500 companies to offer consumers and employees feature-rich mobile applications in less time and at lower costs than any other solution. For more information, please visit www.kony.com.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Innovative Company of the Year - Up to 2,500 Employees
Nomination Title: Kony – Empowering Everywhere
Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved since January 1 2010 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
While the rapid innovation in the mobile market is exciting, the ever-changing
mobile landscape has created a unique, complicated and costly problem for
companies looking to leverage mobile technologies. Brands struggle with how to
best balance the cost of developing and deploying mobile offerings across
multiple devices with the need to reach the widest range of consumers or
employees. Kony was founded in 2007 by Raj Koneru with the goal of developing
mobile technologies and applications that address this problem, using mobile
devices to drive the next customer interaction revolution.
Ever the perfectionist, Koneru insisted the company spend more than two years
architecting its technology from the ground up to address all current mobile
development challenges, while accounting for future developments in the mobile
space. The result is a true Write Once, Run Everywhere, developed using a single
application definition. Kony’s single code base model delivers rich and thin
applications, with the ability to be easily extended for any new operating
system, providing a future-proof solution.
The Kony Platform enables applications to be designed and developed just once,
in a device-independent manner, and deployed across multiple channels, including
native applications, device-optimized mobile web, SMS, web gadgets, desktop
applications, and tablets. Kony’s unique platform is proven to future-proof a
company’s mobile investment by enabling applications to be changed once for all
channels, ensuring faster adoption of new operating systems and standards, while
eliminating maintenance, upgrade and future development costs.
Many mobile development companies claim to have Write Once, Run Everywhere
capabilities, but their technology forces mobile offerings to be downgraded to
meet the capabilities of the device with least functionality. Kony optimizes the
user experience with a super-set of mobile capabilities optimized for each
device and adds additional functionality to devices without these extended
capabilities.
Since bringing its technology to market in late 2009, Kony has experienced rapid
growth, with 10x revenue growth in 2010. More than 45 high-profile Fortune 500
brands have selected Kony for their mobile deployments, including United
Airlines and Toyota. One of the largest financial institutions globally has
engaged with Kony to deploy its solutions in 46 countries. Kony conducted more
than 500 million user sessions in 2010 and introduced a new version of its
platform in November.
In January 2011, Kony raised $19.1m in Series A funding, symbolizing a vote of
industry confidence to drive further expansion. In February, Kony was listed as
one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies” for 2011 in the “Apple
Achievers” category.
Kony is continuing to expand its operations, taking on several dedicated offices
since January 2010 to serve its clients worldwide, including a 750-seat facility
in India. Now with business offices in San Mateo, Orlando, NYC, Toronto, Cologne
(Germany), Hyderabad, Bangalore, Paris (France) and Singapore, Kony has doubled
its staff to 500 employees since July 2010.
Kony is poised for continued growth and market share gain with plans to double
hiring by end of 2012 and introduce additional platform updates to further serve
customers.
List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
Kony news
http://www.kony.com/about-us/press-room/
Kony customer case studies
http://www.kony.com/resource-center/registration-reports/
General Kony Stories:
Fast Company
Kony recently recognized by Fast Company as one of 100 innovative Apple-
affiliated achievers.
http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2011/profile/apple.php
Mobile Marketer
Kony number 1 in top-40 companies to watch says Wikimobidex, a Web-based index
of mobile marketing and advertising firms
http://mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/research/8655.html
Social Times
What Every Social Media Marketer Should Know About Kony
http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/08/kony-mobile-app-social-commerce/
TMCnet
New Version of Kony Mobile Application Platform Released
http://fixed-mobile-convergence.tmcnet.com/topics/mobile-communications/articles/122933-new-version-kony-mobile-application-platform-released.htm
Mobile Commerce Daily
Mobile Commerce Daily’s Dan Butcher interviews Raj Koneru, CEO of Kony, on
mobile commerce
http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mobile-poised-to-become-main-touch-point-in-commercepayment-experiences-kony-exec/
Kony Funding News Stories:
TechCrunch
Kony Solutions Raises $19.1 Million For Mobile Application Platform
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/18/kony-solutions-raises-19-1-million-for-mobile-application-platform/
Venture Beat
Kony Solution Grabs $19.1m for “Write Once, Run Everywhere” apps
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/18/kony-solutions-funding/
Internet Retailer
M-commerce technology provider Kony Solutions secures $19.1 million in financing
http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/01/19/kony-solutions-secures-191-million-financing
Kony Customer News Stories:
CIO
Toyota’s Mobile App Mandate: iPhone, iPad First
http://www.cio.com/article/676763/Toyota_s_Mobile_App_Mandate_iPhone_iPad_First?taxonomyId=3234
Internet Retailer
Toyota drives an advanced mobile app into the palms of shoppers hands
http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/01/18/toyota-places-advanced-mobile-app-shoppers-hands
Mobile Commerce Daily
Citi Relies on Mutliple Mobile Channels for Customer Engagement
http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2011/02/04/citi-relies-on-multiple-mobile-channels-for-customer-engagement
Mobile Marketer
United Airlines Expands Mobile Offering In Time for Spring Break Travel
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/database-crm/5708.html
Kony Weighs In On Industry News and Trends:
Wireless Week
Browser vs. App: Which Is Better?
http://www.wirelessweek.com/Articles/2010/12/Mobile-Content-Browser-Vs-Mobile-Applications/
iMediaConnection
From SMS to Apps: Redefining Mobile
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/28423.asp
Mobile Marketer
Google’s prayer? Apple declines NFC support to iPhone 5
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/software-technology/9380.html
IT Business Edge
The NFC Story Gets More Interesting
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/weinschenk/the-nfc-story-gets-more-interesting/?cs=45961
Mobile Marketer
IPad 2 cements Apple tablet market share dominance
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/manufacturers/9258.html
IT Business Edge
NFC, Other Technologies Take Aim at Huge Mobile Payment Market
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/interviews/blog/nfc-other-technologies-take-aim-at-huge-mobile-payment-market/?cs=45854&page=2
Internet Retailer
Will the iPhone 5 offer NFC payment technology? One expert says yes.
http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/01/27/will-iphone-5-offer-nfc-payment-technology-one-expert-says
Marketing Daily
These Belong On Every CMO’s Mobile Shopping List
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=142403
GearLive
Beyond The iPhone
http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/beyond-iphone-diverse-mobile-devices-channels-q410/
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:
Kony is led by its founder, Raj Koneru. Koneru is an experienced entrepreneur
with a record of success, an eye for market needs, and an ability to bring teams
together, from technical developers to sales. He has over 18 years of experience
delivering to global enterprise business requirements. He co-founded
Intelligroup (NASDAQ: ITIG), which grew to a $200m company over five years under
his leadership. He also built Seranova (NASDAQ: SERA), which within 2.5 years he
grew to $100m in revenue and was sold in 2001. Raj co-founded a BPO company,
iTouchPoint, which was sold in 2005.