Company's novel way to stay in touch attracts financial support

You've just bought a house, you changed jobs twice last year, and you just got a mobile phone, but even your mother doesn't know where to find you. With such scenarios growing increasingly common, especially among 20 to 30-year-olds, a group of Irish graduates had an idea. Why not create a company capable of keeping all your contact information up to date, all the time, and provide a free service that makes that information accessible over the Internet, WAP or iMode phone, via SMS text messaging, or any Internet-enabled device?

The proposal was so intriguing that the young London-based company, ContactDetails.com, gained the financial backing of an investment group comprising some of the Republic's newest technology millionaires, who also formed the company's advisory board: Smartforce founder Mr Bill McCabe, Parthus chief executive Mr Brian Long, Parthus chief financial officer Mr Peter McManamon, and Mr Michael Peirce, chief executive of Mentec.

The company has raised £1.85 million (€2.35 million) in initial funding, entirely through Irish investors, and will be seeking second-round funding in the coming months.

"The company was set up in response to what we thought was a massive problem - people have a constant problem with getting in touch," says Mr Kris Cudmore, ContactDetail's managing director, an Oxford graduate from the Republic with a background in consulting.

Established late last year by three Irish graduates, the company gained the early support of Sun Microsystems. The company will launch an updated website with additional features, www.contactdetails.com, today.

ContactDetails provides users with what they call a CD-ID - a unique, short identifying code, which can be a nickname or your initials - that people can print on business cards or give to business contacts, friends and family. The code, typically only a few characters long, can be entered on the ContactDetails.com website, which then provides up-to-date information on the subscriber. Marketing manager Mr Mark Mulhern, a Trinity graduate, says he believes the service will be of particular help to the new generation of highly mobile, job-shifting workers who want to maintain the business contacts they collect in each job.

He also notes that wireless access to contact information is a major element of ContactDetails.com, as mobile phone penetration continues to boom and people increasingly use a variety of Net access devices such as Palm Pilots and Psion organisers.

CD-IDs are deliberately short and simple so that they can be entered on keypads, letting people access address books on the move.

"The wireless experience is going to happen," he says. "What's the point of having static information on a single device when we're all going to be mobile?" In coming months the company will be rolling out a range of wireless contact options.

Mr Cudmore says wireless access will also provide the company's core revenues, because he believes "wireless portals" - access points for information on wireless networks - will be eager to partner with ContactDetails.

Every time someone uses a CD-ID to access information, income-producing traffic is generated for wireless network providers. The potential market is enormous - according to British analyst Ovum, global revenues from wireless portals will soar from $747 million (€855 million) in 2000 to $42 billion in 2005.