Estonian startup NOW! Innovations, founded in 2003, will reportedly start cooperating with a US startup StreetSmart Technology. StreetSmart Technology will offer its customers an integrated total solution for automatic mobile parking service system.

The service includes automatic managing of parking lots and mobile payment option for the end-users. The parking spaces are being monitored automatically by sensors under the paving. The parking meter will know whether the space has been paid for or not. Should there be any violations, the parking lot manager will be automatically notified. NOW! Innovations provides the platform for the provisioning of mobile digital tickets.

The service is planned to launch on Monday October 20th in the city of Decatur near Atlanta, Georgia. The payment method will be based on automatic voice service instead of SMS. As Arho Anttila, the Managing Director of NOW! Innovations argues, for the average American to use SMS for parking would be “psychologicaly unacceptable and difficult.”

NOW! Innovations has targeted the US (esp. New York and New Jersey) and Latin America (Ecuador and Brazil) for some time, but this new initiative will be the firm’s main bridgehead in the US. The company has previously been involved in launching mobile parking payment systems in Belgium, Estonia, and Slovenia. The company also offers mobile ticketing systems for public transport, and different metering and monitoring solutions.

Half of NOW! Innovations is owned by Helmes, the largest software development company in Estonia, that is supporting the firm’s strong international growth.

[Via Toivo Tänavsuu's TigerPrises.com]

[Via Toivo Tänavsuu's TigerPrises.com]

Estonian company Poohtech has launched a service called Cmart (.swf link) in Latvia that enables paying utility bills in 99 local Narvesen kiosks. Poohtech is an Estonian startup focusing on electronic ticketing and payment solutions. Toivo Annus, the former lead engineer of Skype, has reportedly invested in the firm. Poohtech has earlier provided electronic ticketing for in public transportation in Tallinn, Estonia.

The Cmart service enables Latvians to pay their bills at local newsstand chain Narvesen. The barcodes of bills from different service providers (including telecom, security, energy , etc.), are scanned in and paid on the spot.

The value statement Cmart makes is letting people to pay their bills on the go makes their life much easier. Toivo Tänavsuu comments at least in Estonia most of the people pay their bills online (similarly in Finland), and probably in Latvia also, but on the other hand the service could be very valuable for elderly people.

Poohtech is aiming for international markets with Cmart, and mention they would like to hear from potential partners.

Openbit, a Finnish Tampere based provider of on-device payment and DRM solutions for mobile applications, and Tanla Solutions, Indian telecommunications software and services provider have announced today that Tanla buys 85 % of Openbit for $US 15.81M / EUR 10.2M in cash. The valuation is therefore at EUR 12M, 23.5 times Openbit’s EBITDA (EUR 0.51M) from the fiscal year 2007.

The remaining 15% is still owned by the management and will be acquired by Tanla in two parts, 5% after the first year and 10% after the second. Openbit has been one of the fastest growing companies in Finland in terms of revenue growth, ranking third in the Deloitte’s Finnish Technology Fast 50 list of 2007.

Seems like a potentially very good match for both companies. Openbit should be able to expand their channels and partners faster in Asia and North America, and Tanla gets extensive foothold in Europe.
Congrats to Openbit for the work well done so far!

See Tanla’s press release (PDF) for more information.