ROK, headquartered in the UK with offices in Beijing and Los Angeles, was founded in 2003 to develop on-demand TV to mass-market 2.5G mobile phones via GPRS.

The company is aiming to deploy 30 subscription-based mobile TV services with selected operators by the end of 2007 and has filed 37 patent applications connected with the delivery of mobile content. It recently launched ROK TV with Thai operator AIS.

ROK CEO and chairman Jonathan Kendrick and John-Paul DeJoria are founder partners of the company and have largely been responsible for funding it privately to date. The new investment comes from an as yet unnamed Swiss institution.

Kendrick said: "We have achieved a great deal in the mobile entertainment space over the past few years and have grown the company to some 150 staff worldwide - all through private funding. This injection of cash will see us step-up yet another gear in our global deployment of our mobile TV services and our other major applications and technologies, before we IPO later this year."