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There can be scepticism about international companies coming to AIM to raise cash. One company that has confounded these sceptics is Velti.

When the Greece-based mobile marketing company joined AIM the main focus of its business was Greece and the Balkans. The cash raised at the time of the flotation - and subsequently - has helped Velti become an international business.

Velti, which was formed in 2000, has offices across Europe, as well as in the US, China, India and Dubai. It can provide the marketing platform that allows brands to launch and run campaigns that are simple and easy for their customers to use.

Velti can also provide a content management system and other services. Velti can create a concept for a campaign, develop it, execute it and then provide reports on how it has performed. Its Greek base means that development costs are lower than they would be in the UK. The mobile marketing platform is in its fourth generation.

An example of Velti's work is a service for Argos which allows a customer to check via mobile phone whether a product is in stock. The use of this service has doubled every year since it was launched.

Chief executive Alex Moukas says that mobile marketing used to be part of the larger pot of money for general marketing. He is increasingly finding that mobile marketing has its own line in the marketing budgets of big brands.

The measurability of the success of the marketing will become more important. This doesn't necessarily mean that revenues will be generated based on sales. It could be related to registrations or downloads of coupons.

Worldwide mobile subscribers are expected to increase to more than 3.4bn by 2011. Research by IBM showed that two-thirds of the global brands surveyed said that they would spend 10% of their marketing budget on mobile by 2009.

Targeted mobile marketing gets much better response rates than the internet. Worldwide spending on mobile marketing and advertising spending is forecast to hit $19bn by 2011.

One of the best examples of how seriously Velti is taken in the market is its joint venture with Interpublic, one of the largest advertising and marketing agency groups in the world. New York-based Ansible was set up in July 2007. Key target sectors include fast food, retail, finance, pharma, automotive and government.

Interpublic has a wide variety of multinational clients. Ansible has won work with Intel, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson and General Motors. There are even more brands that can be tapped by this business, whether or not they are Interpublic clients.

A recent trading statement admitted that Ansible was not building its revenues as fast as hoped but it is still making progress.

Longer-term, Velti is targeting China, Russia and India as potentially the fastest growing markets. Velti has also bought a stake in CASEE, the largest mobile advertising exchange in China, which has relationships with more than 2,000 content providers.

The shares have fallen by just over one-quarter since they reached their all-time high of 244p last year but they are holding up well considering the current state of the market.

Velti joined AIM on 3 May 2006, when it raised £10m at 100p a share. At 178p, the shares have gained 78% over a 26 month period.

House broker Royal Bank of Canada forecasts an increase in revenues from €19.9m to €32m in 2008 and it expects operating profits to improve from €5.4m to €8.4m.

The shortfall in Ansible's performance shouldn't dent the forward momentum of the group but it should be noted that a large proportion of the company's business is in the second half.