We’re looking into developing a service that will use a version of the billing platform we use for ZygoHubs, with message credits bought in advance, because this will give users the best value. We’re not going to rush the development process, so we’re not promising a launch date yet - but watch this space for more news. And if you haven’t registered your interest yet, head over to www.zygotweet.com.

The guys are based in SE1, home to a welter of tech startups right now, as well as to me.

The MSK

Load your mobile with the ultimate survival kit 

London – 02/07/2008: Mobyko, Zygo and Texperts, three of the UK’s most innovative mobile players, have teamed up to launch the MSK (Mobile Survival Kit - www.mobilesurvivalkit.com). Designed to provide festival goers with everything they need to stay safe and keep in touch this summer.

The mobile is now the first item on most people’s ‘what to take list’, there are ingenious ways to manage without luxuries such as toilet rolls, however the mobile is indispensable, it plays a massive part in the festival experience. The MSK is a great way for festival-goers to stay connected, share experiences and keep in the know with the latest festival news. Whether you are in Bournemouth or Benicassim it is the ideal way to make the most of the summer festival scene, best of all it’s free to try.

The MSK includes Mobyko’s award winning online content backup and photo gallery, Zygo’s uniquely simple group texting and Texpert’s SMS question-answering service. The MSK gives festival lovers peace of mind, communication and information services on the fly, plus the ability to share their best festival moments straight from the mobile.

Julian Saunders, CEO of Mobyko, said: “I met a guy last year at Glastonbury who lost his mobile phone during one of the sets. He was absolutely gutted, mostly because he’d lost all his contacts and festival snaps. It’s the last thing you want to be worrying about when all you should be doing is listening to your favourite band. This is the festival package for your mobile.”

Jeremy Krantz, CEO of Zygo added: “Zygo’s service is tailor-made for festivals, it’s the fastest and simplest way to text your group of mates. It’s never been so easy to organise loads of people in front of the main stage or chill out tent.”

Texperts CEO Sarah Mcvittie said: “The enduring appeal of Texperts is that you have a load of experts at your fingertips to answer your questions. Whether it’s ‘Who played the drums in ‘This is Spiral Tap?’ or ‘When is the next train out of here?’ our experts will be on hand to provide human-crafted answers fast”

The dedicated microsite has been launched in association with Lastminute.com. Go to http://www.mobilesurvivalkit.com to sign up today.

People living with HIV/AIDS in Mexico, particularly in rural areas, suffer from severe social isolation, due in part to the stigma attached to the disease. This isolation brings with it low levels of practical and emotional support, which in turn leads to poor health outcomes for example, when sufferers stop taking their medication because of unpleasant side-effects. SHM’s hypothesis going in to the trial was that, by using our group messaging technology to overcome this isolation, we would create or enhance social capital and improve health outcomes.

The pilot of Zumbido started on the 3rd of June 2007 in Jalisco, Mexico and ran for three months. The majority of the participants were living with HIV/AIDS, some recently diagnosed, and others who had been living with HIV/AIDS for over twelve years. In each group there was a professional with experience in HIV/AIDS and a family member of someone living with the disease.

All the participants were given a mobile phone, and with Zygos Zygohub technology they were able to simultaneously communicate using text messages with their nine co-members. The participants got to grips with the technology and started using it very quickly, sending 5,000 SMS messages in the first three days, and over 240,000 messages over the course of the whole three-month trial.

There was a clear need amongst the participants to communicate and share experiences. This result was particularly interesting, as over half of them had never used a phone before. Participants shared information about access to healthcare services, discussing human rights and how to deal with problems of discrimination and ignorance. They also gave one another support in day-to-day problems such as personal relationships, encouraging one another to take their medication, and dealing with isolation. In addition, those from rural areas received practical support from those in urban areas when coming into the city to receive medical attention.

The social capital that was generated in this project has had huge benefits for those who took part. A participant told his group before the project ended that “it was an amazing experience to be able to share and learn from all of you. These past three months have changed my life, thank you my friends.” Although the groups no longer have access to the ZygoHubs service, many of them are still keeping in touch with one another.

The technical challenges to making this all work in Mexico were considerable. In order to run the groups on local numbers we sourced four Movistar SIMS, brought them back to the UK and put them in modems in our data centre in Slough. We sent text messages out locally by connecting to a messaging platform in Mexico. Our pals at Anana helped us to deliver a voicemail and conferencing service on the same numbers hosted on a voice platform in Australia!

Anyway, it all paid off in the end because Zumbido was selected as a finalist in the prestigious Stockholm Challenge awards for the use of ICT in development projects. SHM invited us to join them at the awards ceremony on May 22nd at Stockholm Town Hall, home of the Nobel Prize, no less. We got to meet some truly inspiring people from all over the world who were as passionate about the transformative power of technology as we are.

“For 10 years, Red Herring’s editorial team has diligently surveyed entrepreneurship around the globe. Technology industry executives, investors, and observers have regarded the Red Herring 100 lists as an invaluable instrument to discover and advocate the promising startups that will lead the next wave of disruption and innovation.”

Anyway, to cut to the chase, on the Wednesday night (16th April) we learned that we had won this prestigious award. Given that past winners have included Google, Yahoo!, Skype, Netscape, Salesforce.com, and YouTube, we felt honoured indeed.

A couple of personal highlights from the conference:

Webjam
Webjam is a Web 2.0 startup that allows groups and communities to create their own shared space on the web with minimal fuss and maximum personality. I’ve been using it for some of my own projects for over a year now, so it was a pleasure to meet and speak to their CEO and co-founder, Yann Motte, a man with a genuine passion for his product and his customers.

Trampoline Systems
I’d never heard of Trampoline Systems before, but the presentation from their CEO Charles Armstrong was for my money one of the best at the conference. Using principles derived from the social sciences, Trampoline have developed a social networking platform for enterprises that helps to unlock the hidden knowledge and networks of expertise within any business, using existing data sources (such as email) as a starting point. It’s a sort of Facebook for business that automatically updates your profile with all the projects you’re working on and the people you’re talking to. That might sound a bit scary but what you expose and to whom is completely under your own control - the privacy aspects have been thought through very carefully.

Malta, April 15, 2008 – Red Herring today announced that Zygo Communications is a recipient of the Red Herring 100 Europe, an award given to the top 100 private technology companies based in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region each year.

“This year’s impressive list of winners demonstrates Europe’s emergence as a major player in the global technology sector,” said Red Herring Editor-in-Chief, Joel Dreyfuss. “The exceptional accomplishments of European technology companies and entrepreneurs are a testament to the rapid advancements being made in building the European innovation ecosystem.”

Red Herring’s lists of top private companies are an important part of the company’s tradition of identifying new and innovative technology companies and entrepreneurs. Companies like Google, eBay and Skype were spotted in their early days by Red Herring editors, and touted as leaders that would change the way we live and work.

Red Herring’s editorial staff rigorously evaluated more than hundreds of private companies through a careful analysis of financial data and subjective criteria, including quality of management, execution of strategy, and dedication to research and development.

To honor the CEOs of Red Herring 100 Europe companies, Red Herring has invited each CEO to present his or her company at its Red Herring Europe 2008 event. Scheduled for April 14-16, at the Westin Dragonara Resort, this intimate, three-day event is themed “Ahead of the Curve” and will explore how European firms are leading the charge in many technology sectors, gaining the competitive advantage, and driving entrepreneurial success in ways that create business opportunities for challengers and incumbents alike.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company which unites the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine, an online daily technology news service, technology newsletters and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. More information about Red Herring is available on the Internet at www.redherring.com.

One Group, One Unique Number To Keep You In Touch

London: Tuesday 25th March 2008 – Zygo, today announces the launch of its new group communication service ZygoHubs which offers a unique service enabling groups to stay in touch instantly over their mobiles.

ZygoHubs
• Allows anyone to set up their own group messaging service (via the web at www.zygohubs.com) and provides that group with a single central telephone number through which any member can contact the whole group instantly.
• One text message sent to the group number and the ZygoHub relays it out to all members, similarly any reply goes back to the whole group creating an instant and true group text conversation.
• Is designed to be inclusive for everyone in a group so works on any network, any handset and is as simple as sending an individual text message.
• Has an easy to use web interface that allows the members to add profiles, send sms, manage their group and archives the group’s conversations.

Trials of ZygoHubs with AOL, a large UK mobile operator and others have proven that once tried users can’t imagine not having the service. Both consumers and business users find the service simple and fast to set up and easy and cost-effective to use.

Commenting on the service, Bob Spencer, who set up a ZygoHub with a group of friends so they could keep in touch whilst on a skiing holiday, said: “With a group of 13 people inevitably there were varying skiing abilities within the group and different ideas about activities each individual wanted to take part in during the holiday. Sending text messages to each member of the group separately would have been prohibitively time consuming and considerably more costly. Being able to send one message which would reach every member of the group meant the organisation of the holiday and group was significantly easier than previous years.”

BBM Law, a small and very busy firm of legal aid solicitors based in London, has been using the ZygoHubs service since September 2006. Neil Baxter, a partner at the firm, explains: “We’re legal aid solicitors and the nature of our work is quite unpredictable. Most of us are out and about during the day - visiting clients at police stations or courts. Before we started using ZygoHubs, keeping tabs on everyone was a headache. Using the ZygoHub we can send one message asking where everyone is and when they are likely to be free. In the past we would have had to ring each solicitor individually, so Zygo helps us to save a lot of time. Using texts is often easier, as when we are at court we either need to have our phones off or on silent.

Another ZygoHubs user, Fiona Mackay set up the service for her group of thirty-something former school friends naming it ‘Girly Gossip’. “Unfortunately we don’t live that near each other anymore so we can’t get together that much - but when the ‘Girly Gossip’ chat starts hotting up – it feels like we’ve never been apart! It’s such a great way to keep in touch with the old gang”, she explains.

Created with LOVE, the award winning digital design agency, www.zygohubs.com allows users to set up and manage their group online as well as providing an archive of the group’s messages. Initially a simple paid-for credit-based service, this will be followed by an advertising-supported model in the coming months. Research has demonstrated that customers would welcome brand sponsorship of the service in return for reduced messaging costs. Zygo has developed an advertising engine that is capable of embedding sponsorship into users’ messages. This has resulted in a mobile media service where commercial messages are less intrusive than traditional push sms and Zygo is in talks with a number of Brands.

This innovative mobile marketing solution has so far this year seen Zygo Communications announced as one of 200 finalists for the 2008 Red Herring 100. The Company has been short-listed for the Mobile Marketing Awards, the Mobile Advertising and Marketing Awards and a global business plan award – Mobile Rules!- organised by Nokia for which Zygo is the only UK finalist.

ENDS

For further information contact:
Lydia Oakes
Public Relations for Zygo Communications
T: +44 (0)1799 543909
M: +44 (0)7710 244573
E : lydia@Zygocommunications.com

Notes to editors
About ZygoHubs™
ZygoHubs™ is an innovative yet simple service that assigns a group of people with a single telephone number enabling them to connect through text, voice and the web. It’s as easy to use as sending a standard text or making a call and can be used from any mobile phone, regardless of network or type of handset. Once the group has been created and the unique number assigned, each potential member can join the group using a simple SMS or web-based sign-up procedure. Sending messages, administration facilities, as well as an archive of all messages sent to the group, are available via an easy-to-use web interface. Initially supporting SMS, future upgrades will incorporate voicemail, conference calling, picture and video messaging. In addition, a service specifically tailored to the needs of business users will be launched in the coming months.

ZygoHubs advertising platform is easy to use and trials suggest it has the potential to generate significant volumes of group traffic. It offers advertisers an opportunity to engage with groups of consumers through their real world social communities. Consumer trials conducted by AOL, a UK network operator and others have demonstrated the appeal of ZygoHubs with groups finding the service simple to set up and easy to use.

About Zygo Communications
Based in London, UK, Zygo Communications is dedicated to developing products and services that allow groups of people who know each other in the real world to socialise, organise and share information, whenever they want and wherever they are. Zygo’s patented technology offers a unique product that allows a group of people to assign a dedicated mobile phone number to their group that enables them to communicate easily by SMS, voice and the web.

For further information about Zygo visit: www.zygocommunications.com
To sign up for the service go to www.zygohubs.com

Malta , March 20, 2008 – Red Herring today announced that Zygo Communications was named a Finalist of Red Herring 100 Europe, an award given to the top 100 private technology companies based in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region each year.

“This year’s impressive list of submissions from companies demonstrates Europe’s growing role as a major center of innovation in the global technology sector,” said Red Herring Editor-in-Chief Joel Dreyfuss. “The exceptional accomplishments of European technology startups and entrepreneurs are a testament to the rapid advancements being made in building the European innovation ecosystem.”

Red Herring’s lists of top private companies are an important part of the publication’s tradition of identifying new and innovative technology companies and entrepreneurs. Companies like Google, eBay, and Skype were spotted in their early days by Red Herring editors, and touted as leaders that would change the way we live and work.

Red Herring’s editorial staff rigorously evaluated several hundred private companies through a careful analysis of financial data and subjective criteria, including quality of management, execution of strategy, and dedication to research and development.

Red Herring will honor the Red Herring 100 Europe Finalist companies at its Red Herring Europe 2008 event. Scheduled for April 14-16, at the Westin Dragonara Resort, this intimate, three-day event is themed “The Pursuit of Disruption” and will explore how European firms are leading the charge in many technology sectors, gaining the competitive advantage, and driving entrepreneurial success in ways that create business opportunities for challengers and incumbents alike.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company which unites the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine, an online daily technology news service, technology newsletters and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. More information about Red Herring is available on the Internet at www.redherring.com.

It’s been an exciting 2008 so far here at Zygo HQ. We’re moments away from taking the covers off our new consumer ZygoHubs service (more about that in the next blog) but we’ve had a great start to the year already as we’ve been shortlisted for two industry awards.

The first is the UK based Mobile Marketing Awards where our advertising funded service has been short-lised for the best new offering from a mobile service provider. The second is the Nokia sponsored Mobile Rules! competition that searches for the best business plan for mobile businesses from around the world.

We know how tough the competition is - but fingers crossed…..