• by Ben Frederick  @mp_benfred, August 4, 2015

Zeotap announced plans to recruit more engineers for its tech center in Bangalore, India, and expand internationally to North America after raising $6.4 million in series A funding. The company counts Vodafone, O2 and Telefonica as clients.

Telecom operators have access to a largely untapped mine of user data, says zeotap, a Berlin-based tech company that helps mobile network operators monetize that data. The wealth of data could help mobile marketers target their audiences more accurately, and the company says, anonymously.

The company raised $1.3 million in seed funding last November, bringing its total funding to $7.7 million. Capnamic Ventures led the round with Iris Capital, some prominent angel and existing investors.

Redoubling efforts towards India makes sense, with the kinds of information carriers have and the expected potential for growth in the Indian mobile market. Some analysts predict 3G subscribers in India will reach 284 million by 2017.

Accessing mobile network operator’s data for marketing raises flags about privacy. In response to these flags, Zeotap reportedly plans to strip out email addresses, phone numbers and other PII, replacing them with perishable ID numbers that allow carriers control over the data after it enters the marketplace.

The angels participating in the funding include Michael Halberr, former CEO of Nokia HERE; Steffen Roehn, former CIO of Deutsche Telekom Group; Devin Guan, Co-Founder and CTO of Drawbridge; and Peter Scheufen, former CEO of Skobbler (acquired by Telenav) and prior to that founder of Navigon (acquired by Garmin).