• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 20, 2011

Direct mobile marketing company Zoove Thursday announced raising $5 million from Rogers Ventures, the venture capital arm of Canada-based telecom giant Rogers Communications. The funding follows on the heels of Zoove’s fourth-round financing last month led by Panorama Capital.

The company's StarStar dialing codes allow advertisers to reserve short numerical codes that mobile users can dial for special deals and offers. The codes are typically formatted as ** followed by the name of the brand being marketed. Like SMS short codes, they’re also meant to be integrated with traditional media including billboards, print ads, TV and radio spots.

“StarStar numbers can be the next great ‘name space’ for advertisers– similar to branded URL names and vanity 1-800 numbers,” said Mike Lee, vice president of venture investments at Rogers Ventures, who will join Zoove’s board in connection with the transaction. For its part, Zoove said it would use the additional capital to accelerate its U.S. operations. Through its carrier partnerships, Zoove says ads delivered via its dial codes can now reach more than 250 million U.S. consumers.