Companies: BGO   

Ray Anderson, the innovator and investor who once sold a company to Apple genius Steve Jobs, is convinced the numbers add up long-term at mobile internet technology business Bango, named after the Japanese word for number, and recent recipient of a major endorsement from internet powerhouse Yahoo.

Keen pilot Anderson is chief executive of the group, which enables content providers ranging from MTV and Manchester United to Channel 4 and Sky, to market, deliver and sell their wares and services directly to mobile phone users across all the mobile networks.

‘We are the internet coming to mobile,’ explains Anderson. He is frustrated by a cool City reception to the Yahoo deal, which should drive major revenue growth for Bango by boosting both its customer base and end-user population.

Anderson won this year’s ‘Technology Entrepreneur of the Year’ award and belongs to the Cambridge Angels. He co-founded Bango in 1999 after spying the irresistible convergence of the Internet with the ubiquitous use of mobile phones. In earlier incarnations, he co-founded Torch Computers, which he then sold to CATSCO in 1984.