venture money

NextPoint Networks

Doug Mohney — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:30:18 -0500

Founded: December 2007, shotgun wedding of NexTone and Reef Point Systems

Status: Assimilated by GENBAND, September 2008

What did it do: Number #2 in SBC market share, FMC, DPI

Website: www.nextpointnetworks.com

The companies making up NextPoint Networks (not to be confused with Nextpoint, the litigation software firm) burned through an estimated $150 million in venture capital before merging.

An initial merger announcement scheduled to take place at in October 2007 in Boston transmogrified into a "working relationship" between the two companies; a formal merger finally took place in December 2007 with a wedding gift of $20 million in venture money.

Haughty announcements of "We're not cutting jobs, we're adding them" followed the completion of the merger in January 2008, but the energy surge seemed to peak at CTIA - followed by various outsourcing and job cuts over the summer to shape up the company to be sold off.

At its peak, NexTone held the number 2 position in the SBC market, while Reef Point seemed to develop a lot of products. We never heard anyone in the FMC world say they lost sleep at night about what Reef Point was doing.

Still, NextPoint had the only SBC technology and customer base worth having, but we're dying to know how much GENBAND paid to acquire the company. Did GENBAND pay something around our guess at list price ($150-170 million) or get a discount as the credit markets started to tighten?

IntelePeer gets $18M

Doug Mohney — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:01:18 -0500

What does IntelePeer do that all the other "I can make a phone call within a web app" companies don't? Whatever it is, it seems to be worth $18 million in third round venture money lead by Vantage Point.

According to Venture Beat, IntelePeer is sorta like Ribbit. The company has its AppworX open communications platform and a voice peering grid network (OK, Ribbit didn't have a voice peering grid, me thinks) so app developers have the ability to create rich media services while using IntelePeer's hosted services to save money.

IntelePeer is calling its offering a CaaS - Communications as a Service. Customers get to tap into the combo of Web 2.0 and Voice 2.0 capabilities on top of the company's carrier-grade telecommunications voice peering network, and there's a network peering grid infrastructure that reportedly handles "billions" of voice minutes per year and has direct connections with more 50 service providers around the globe.

Don't think Ribbit had the whole voice grid peering thing going...

Anyway, IntelePeer claims Microsoft, WebEx, BT, AT&T, Verizon, Facebook and TMCnet as customers, with the main hook so far being a click-to-call feature within various web apps.

Formerly named VoEx, other investors include EDF Ventures, Kennet Venture Partners, and NorthCap Partners.

For more:
- IntelePeer gets the attention of VentureBeat. Post.

Agito, Nimbuzz Score Second Round Funding

Doug Mohney — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:58:59 -0400

Mobile UC/FMC hardware maker Agito Networks and mobile VoIP software/social network client Nimbuzz both have secured their second rounds of venture funding this week.

Silicon Valley-based Agito received around $13 million, with Castile Ventures leading the round and ITX and original investor Battery Ventures also participating. Agito intends to apply the money to further market expansion in the enterprise fixed mobile convergence (eFMC) arena and for product development. Agito's RoamAnywhere Mobility Router is fine-tuned to use location-aware technologies to switch between cellular and VoIP 802.11-based calls.

Nimbuzz raised $15 million in its second round, with funding lead by Naspers/MIH and first round investor Mangrove Capital Partners also participating. The company will take its funding to continue to develop its application and its proliferation, including "strategic" distribution deals with social networks and mobile operators. Operators are expected to sign on because Nimbuzz drives traffic and demand for mobile data services while the software has to be ported to Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Android; currently, the full software and functionality only works on Symbian Series 60 devices while Java-enabled phones can do a hybrid-VoIP solution for making low-cost international calls.

For more:
- Agito second round funding announcement

Related articles:
Cisco teams with Agito for eFMC solution
Nimbuzz Retreads Familiar Ground

Jaxtr Dials Out and into $10M

Doug Mohney — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:33:30 -0400

Jaxtr, yet another VoIP-to-mobile-phone play, has now enabled out of network calls with the usual discounted savings--"substantially less"--than rates charged by a typical calling card. The company also scored $10 million in VC money.

Jaxtr users were always able to make free in-network calls, it was the off-network piece that wasn't announced until yesterday. Calls are placed with direct dial numbers, avoiding the headache of access and PIN numbers. Jaxtr is currently used by more than 10 million people in 220 countries, says the company.

Lehman Brothers Venture Partners led the $10 million dollar of financing. A Lehman Brothers partner praised Jaxtr's ability to acquire "millions" of customers per month without spending any money on marketing and the ability to monetize its offering within 16 months of launch through advertising and premium (i.e. value-added bells and whistles) services. Premium features include more free SMS per month and enhanced digital voicemail features.

Credits, or "jax," can be spent and purchased to call non-members. One jax equals about a penny, so you can call Canada and China for around a penny per minute and India for 6 cents per minute.

Has Jaxtr found a way to survive in a crowded field populated by Jajah, TruPhone, and the corpses of other players such as Jangl, and TalkPlus?

For more
- Jaxtr $10M and out-of-network release

Related articles:
Jaxtr: 10 million customers but no revenue
Jaxtr social network VoIP tool bows: Do you care?