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Pepperjam founder supplies start-up cash for mobile application firm.
Appek Mobile Apps founders Adam Ceresko, center, and Andrew Herman, right, speak at a press conference Wednesday. Their Scranton business received a $50,000 investment from Pepperjam founder Kristopher Jones, left.
JASON RIEDMILLER PHOTO / FOR the times leader
SCRANTON – Citing the ever-increasing demand for mobile applications, a successful Internet company founder from Luzerne County put his financial support behind two Lackawanna County entrepreneurs who he said share his mentality.
Pepperjam founder Kristopher B. Jones announced Wednesday morning that he will provide $50,000 from his angel investment firm, KBJ Capital, to Appek Mobile Apps and its new business-to-business app development firm.
The cross-regional effort is the first publicly announced venture supported by Jones, who sold his Wilkes-Barre-based interactive marketing and technology firm Pepperjam to GSI Commerce in 2009. The goal of KBJ Capital, Jones said, is to invest in early-stage technology companies in the hopes of discovering “the next Pepperjam or Solid Cactus right here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
Scranton residents and Appek co-founders Andrew Herman and Adam Ceresko, both 25, said Jones’ investment adds “speed and scale” to their two-man operation that is currently based out of the Scranton Enterprise Center, 201 Lackawanna Ave., Scranton.
“There is an enormous demand for high-end, elite mobile app development. To be honest, there hasn’t been one single company to step forward and fill that void,” Herman said.
Appek will focus on mobile integration, start-up ventures and enterprise solutions, and offer consultation, design, and development services. The company will target all mobile platforms, from the iPhone and iPad to Android and Blackberry devices, Herman said.
Jones said the founders of Appek stuck out to him among dozens of other local companies because “they don’t dream local, they dream global.” He added that he’ll play an active role as a strategic advisor and will work with Ceresko and Herman to develop a board of advisors.
Appek’s new role in business development is a paradigm shift from the company that had previously built its own apps from the ground up on an individual idea.
The pair’s first app, CATA, provides real-time bus locations for the Centre Area Transportation Authority in Centre County. It was conceived during their time together as students at Penn State University and released on a trial basis during the spring 2010 semester, nearly a year after they graduated. That spring, CATA was downloaded more than 6,000 times, according to Ceresko.
Through their own experiences, Ceresko said they learned that efficiency and design can make or break a mobile application.
Ceresko said companies are projected to spend up to $17 billion on mobile app development in 2011.
“If we can bring just a small chunk of that back to this area, we feel like we can do a lot of great things,” he said.