Motorola Inc, the world's second biggest mobile phone maker, is one potential suitor, according to people familiar with the matter. Motorola declined to comment and Brogan declined to name the potential suitors.
The potential investment interest in tiny privately owned Sendo comes as larger players look to supply tailored phones to mobile network operators. Sendo also supplies tailored phones.
The six-year-old Birmingham firm can make fully featured basic handsets for as little as $25 at a time while Motorola and Nokia have set their sights on the low-cost segment of sub-$40 phones for emerging markets.
Sony Ericsson President Miles Flint recently told Reuters he is unable to play in that ultra-low cost segment because of his higher cost structure.
Brogan once joked that while Nokia employs more secretaries than Sendo's entire payroll, his small company is not limited to the low-end phone segment. The company has also produced several mid-range models and smartphones.
"We do everything. We have a full range of products, not just the low end. We do our own plastics, our own electronics, all our software. And we do it with 300 staff. They (the large manufacturers) have 300 people for one phone," Brogan said.
Brogan, who used to work at Motorola's handset division before leaving for Philips in the mid-1990s, said Sendo needed extra money to keep going and growing.
Sendo generated revenues of $420 million in 2004, compared with $120 million in 2003. Initially, it sold mostly to small operators who wanted a special design to make their handsets stand out from larger rivals, but as of late Sendo has also sold to global operations of Vodafone and Telefonica.
Handset vendors together sold 684 million phones last year, with the top six accounting for almost 80 percent of those.
Sendo sold 5 million phones last year, up from 1.6 million units in 2003, and Brogan expects to sell 6.5 to 7 million handsets this year.