Recently in Funding/Investments Category

Jon Arnold and I finally got it all together and are proud to announce the launch of our new portal, IP Communications Insights.

I'll let the announcement we sent over the wire this morning fill you in on the details:

Robins Consulting Group and J Arnold & Associates Announce the Launch of IP Communications Insights

New Web Site is Home to IP Communications Industry Newsletter, Blogs, Podcasts, Newsfeeds, and Market Research and Intelligence

NEW YORK & TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Robins Consulting Group (RCG) and J Arnold & Associates (JAA) – both prominent IP communications industry research, marketing and consulting firms – have proudly announced the launch of their new independent Web platform “IP Communications Insights”, located at http://www.ipcom-insights.com.

IP Communications Insights is the culmination of a partnership between the two firms that includes an array of marketing, communications, advisory, consulting and research services for IP communications technology vendors and service providers.

Designed to be an independent platform for industry thought leaders and market intelligence, the goal for IP Communications Insights is to offer valuable coverage, analysis and information not readily available elsewhere.

In addition, IP Communications Insights will publish an ongoing series of industry reports designed to be very topical, highly strategic, concise and affordably priced. One study in the works, “VoIP Mashups - Where's the Money?” is a critical evaluation and insider view of this rapidly evolving space. The possibilities for VoIP mashups are limitless, but the business case scenarios are not. This ground-breaking report will survey today's landscape and provide a strategic roadmap for making VoIP mashups a viable business.

Marc Robins, IP Communications Insights Co-Founder and Chief Technology Evangelism Officer of RCG, has been involved in the IP communications industry since its inception, and has served the industry as a reporter and analyst, conference producer and magazine publisher, and marketing executive and consultant. Mr. Robins also serves as the Managing Director of the SIP Forum, (http://www.sipforum.org), a prominent IP communications industry association that engages in numerous activities that advance and promote SIP technology, such as the development of industry recommendations, the SIPit interoperability and testing events, special interoperability workshops, and general promotion of SIP in the industry.

“I’m extremely proud – and excited -- to be going “live” with IP Communications Insights,” says Marc Robins. “I believe it accurately represents the vision that both Jon and I share, and creates a new environment for independent analysis and thought leadership that we feel is sorely missing in the marketplace of information. I look forward to working with Jon to continuously refine and add value to our platform, and to working with the many extremely talented individuals who have supported our efforts over the past year.”

J Arnold & Associates, founded by Jon Arnold, one of the IP communications industry’s most highly regarded analysts, is closely associated with VoIP, for both consumer and business applications. His marketing and strategy advice on the broader IP communications market is widely sought from vendors, carriers, the investment community, PR agencies and many facets of the media community.

“For some time now, Marc and I have felt there is a void in the market for independent analysis, and together we believe we can address it,” says Jon Arnold. “More than ever, with so much disruption, innovation and competition, we see a need for this type of perspective, and our intention is for the Web portal to become a focal point of clarity.”

About IP Communications Insights

IP Communications Insights is a portal for independent thought leadership and market intelligence not readily available elsewhere. IP Communications Insights hosts an IP communications industry newsletter, blogs, podcasts, and newsfeeds. The portal is also a new source for industry reports that are independent, authoritative, strategic and affordable. For more information about IP Communications Insights, visit www.ipcom-insights.com.

About RCG (Robins Consulting Group)

RCG, founded in 2003 by Marc Robins, is one of the leading consulting firms for companies in the IP Communications industry, offering market intelligence, high-value strategic planning and communications, messaging and branding expertise, and a variety of marketing consulting services including awareness and demand creation, distribution channel strategies and development, public relations support, and market research and intelligence.

Mr. Robins also serves as the Managing Director of the SIP Forum, a leading IP communications industry association. Prior to founding RCG, Marc served as Vice President of Publications and Trade Shows, Associate Group Publisher and Group Editorial Director at TMC (Technology Marketing Corporation).

Over the course of his career, Marc has authored hundreds of articles and columns for leading industry magazines, and he continues to evangelize new IP communications trends and technologies as a contributor to trade, mainstream and business publications. Marc is also a frequent moderator and speaker at leading industry events. For more information about RCG, visit www.robinsconsult.com.

About JAA

Jon Arnold is Principal of J Arnold & Associates, an independent analyst and marketing consultancy with a focus on IP communications. JAA works with a wide variety of clients in this sector, with expertise in VoIP, cable telephony, IPTV, Triple Play, enterprise IP, WiFi/WiMax, Peer-to-Peer, Web 2.0 and Open Source. His views are frequently cited in the business and trade press, and he regularly speaks at leading industry events. He also maintains an active profile through his widely followed blog and podcasts. Previously, he was the VoIP Program Leader at Frost & Sullivan, where he was responsible for managing their subscription service for Global VoIP Equipment Markets. The consultancy was launched in March 2005. For more information about JAA, visit www.jarnoldassociates.com.

Brilliant Telecommunications Inc., a developer of ultra-precise Network Timing Protocol (NTP) server technology, has secured $7.1 million in a Series A funding round led by ONSET Ventures. Also investing in the round were Asset Management, Draper Associates, Draper Richards, and Intellect Capital Ventures, LLC.  Brilliant plans to use this financing to accelerate product development, streamline operations, and fund commercial deployments.

Brilliant has developed an intelligent platform for packet-based networks that addresses the growing need for highly accurate timestamps across broad markets. Many industries, including telecommunications, finance, health, legal and manufacturing, need highly accurate chronological data archived to be compliant with existing and emerging regulations, such as Sarbanes Oxley, HIPAA, and NASD Rule 132.

Brilliant’s hardware-based timestamp technology has been well received in the market place due to its ability to easily integrate into existing networks while addressing strict regulatory demands for accurate and legally traceable time.

I had to chuckle -- and scratch my head -- when I heard about the "glum" news regarding the financial performance of Ebay's VoIP operation, a.k.a. Skype. According to Ebay CEO Meg Whitman, "The monetization efforts we outlined at the time of the acquisition are not developing as quickly as we had hoped." During 2006, Skype generated $195 million in revenue -- after Ebay laid out $2.6 billion for the company in 2005.

Am I missing something here? A lackluster "monetization" result was basically guaranteed given the decision to give away free Skype Out calls for the entire 2006 calendar year for North American subscribers. But what this announcement implies is that Meg or the Ebay staff in charge of overseeing Skype's bottom line either were not included in the initial decision to provide free calling (which I have a hard time believing), weren't exactly completely in agreement with the strategy (a distinct possibility given the recent management shake ups at the company), or were completely clueless about the net results of such a strategy (which I also have a hard time believing.)

I always believed that the Free Year was a shrewd strategy to boost Skype's subscriber count, and based on the disclosure that Skype managed to triple the number of registered users to 171 million over the course of the year, it seemed to work as planned. I also believed that Ebay was willing to forgo short-term profits in order to grow market share (given Ebay's deep pockets, not an unreasonable strategy.)

Now that Skype has announced a variety of new plans -- most notably a $29.95 all you can eat annual package for U.S and Canadian customers -- revenues are picking up. Apparently, Skype generated $66 million in the fourth quarter of 2006 -- up a whopping 164% from the year-ago -- so it seems as if Skype has some opportunity to mine its installed and growing base of customers to generate some good revenue numbers in the near future.
 
In fact, I expect the company will accelerate the introduction of new "for pay" features, functions and associated plans to goose cash flow in the months ahead.

Jon Arnold and I figured that since most everyone else was making some sort of announcement, issuing press releases and generally making noise  -- especially to pull in the crowds at Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO East going on right now -- that it was OK to make some noise of our own.

Hopefully it will be music to your ears

---

         




NEW YORK, TORONTO, and FORT LAUDERDALE, January 23, 2007-- Robins Consulting Group (RCG) and J Arnold & Associates (JAA) – both leading IP Communications industry research, marketing and consulting firms – have proudly announced a new partnership that includes the two firms joining forces to provide an array of marketing, communications, strategy consulting and market research services to their growing roster of IP communications technology vendors and service providers.

In addition, RCG and JAA will be jointly developing new information resources, including an electronic newsletter and related Web site, which will offer unique industry analysis, a healthy dose of opinion, provide a new platform for other industry thought leaders, and offer valuable coverage and information not readily available elsewhere about the rapidly evolving IP communications industry.

Veteran industry thought leader Marc Robins, RCG's founder and Chief Evangelism Officer, has been involved in the IP communications industry since its inception, and has served the industry as a leading reporter and analyst, conference producer and magazine publisher, and marketing executive and consultant.

“I’ve known Jon for several years, and have come to consider him one of the best minds in the industry,” says Marc Robins. “I’m thrilled to be forging this new partnership with Jon and JAA, as I believe the unique combination of our highly complementary capabilities will allow us to deliver even more value to our clients and to the industry at large. I also look forward to working with Jon to create exciting and compelling new resources of industry intelligence to help industry professionals navigate the constantly shifting sands of this dynamic, fast-moving industry.”

J Arnold & Associates, founded by Jon Arnold, one of the IP communications industry’s most highly regarded analysts, is closely associated with VoIP, for both consumer and business applications. His marketing and strategy advice on the broader IP communications market is widely sought from vendors, carriers, the investment community, PR agencies and many facets of the media community.

“Marc brings a rich perspective to this space, and is an independent voice that is widely followed,” says Jon Arnold. “Together, I think can we offer a valuable resource that can benefit anyone involved in the IP communications market. In a nutshell, I’d like to think of us as the go-to-guys for all things IP.”

About RCG (Robins Consulting Group)

RCG, founded in 2003 by Marc Robins, is one of the leading consulting firms for companies in the IP Communications industry, offering market intelligence, high-value strategic planning and communications, messaging and branding expertise, and a variety of marketing consulting services including awareness and demand creation, distribution channel strategies and development, public relations support, and market research and analysis. Prior to founding RCG, Marc served as Vice President of Publications and Trade Shows, Associate Group Publisher and Group Editorial Director at TMC (Technology Marketing Corporation.)

Over the course of his career, Marc has authored hundreds of articles and columns for leading industry magazines, and he continues to evangelize new IP communications trends and technologies as a regular contributor to trade, mainstream and business publications, and as the author of his popular column “Mind Share 2.0” for Internet Telephony® magazine and blog “Beyond VoIP”. Marc is also a frequent moderator and speaker at leading industry events. For more information about RCG, visit www.robinsconsult.com.

About JAA

Jon Arnold is Principal of J Arnold & Associates, an independent analyst and marketing consultancy with a focus on IP communications. JAA works with a wide variety of clients in this sector, with expertise in VoIP, cable telephony, IPTV, Triple Play, enterprise IP, WiFi/WiMax, Peer-to-Peer, Web 2.0 and Open Source. His views are frequently cited in the business and trade press, and he regularly speaks at leading industry events. He also maintains an active profile through his widely followed blog and podcasts. Previously, he was the VoIP Program Leader at Frost & Sullivan, where he was responsible for managing their subscription service for Global VoIP Equipment Markets. The consultancy was launched in March 2005. For more information about JAA, visit www.jarnoldassociates.com.

I'm looking forward to a little travel now, just as the weather is starting to behave wintery (pretty soon NYC will look like this).

Thankfully, upcoming travel will take me south to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO East.

I'll be moderating, checking out the latest technology on the show floor and sussing out the latest trends, holding meetings in the press room and elsewhere in the convention center (maybe out on a sun-drenched  patio) and generally enjoying catching up with folk and putting new faces to new names.

I'll be attending from midday Wednesday, January 24th till the show's end on Friday afternoon. If you're also attending the show and would like to meet up, please let me know.

Mobile Internet telephony start-up Truphone has announded that it has received a funding round of $24.5 million, making it the European technology sector’s largest Series A venture funding of 2006. The funding was led by Wellington Partners, a leading pan-European VC, with Independent News & Media (a global media group) and Burda Digital Ventures (a global media group) joining existing investors Eden Ventures and various angel investors.

In 2006, Truphone introduced VoIP to mass market mobile phones, enabling users to make free calls from their handsets to other Truphone users and low Internet-rate calls to any telephone worldwide. In late 2006, this was extended to free phone calls to a range of VoIP services.

Truphone’s true mobile VoIP service enables calls to be made between mobile devices entirely free of charge. Since calls are carried via Wi-Fi over the Internet, and not over a regular phone network, there are no operator charges to make or receive such calls.

As a result, using a Truphone-enabled handset to make an international call from a Wi-Fi hotspot abroad cuts out the usual, expensive, roaming charges, threatening one of the major sources of revenue for the existing cellular network operators. In addition to lowering call costs, Truphone uses Wi-Fi to provide
complementary pseudo-cellular coverage in blindspots. It is estimated that 26% of the population in the major European countries have poor/no cellular reception at home.

The new funding will provide Truphone with resources to execute its vision of fundamentally changing the economics of mobile communications and providing revolutionary new services to mobiles, increasing the base of handsets it supports and launching the Truphone service across the globe. The plan is to create a worldwide Mobile Internet Network Operator providing a free/low-cost alternative to conventional cellular network service providers.

According to Joerg Ueberla of Wellington,  “We led this round of investment because we have followed the rapid rise of VoIP on the fixed-line network and believe that VoIP will now move to mobile devices. Other players offering free/low-cost VoIP-based telephone calls require the use of a PC or a fixed-line phone. Truphone is the only player that offers truly free mobile-to-mobile calls across the world – a veritable disruption. This value proposition has been proven by thousands of users who are spread around the globe and were acquired by word of mouth within weeks of the launch of the beta version.”

The numbers are in for the first three quarters of 2006: According to Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst and Young, venture capital firms have invested $455.5 million in 79 deals involving Web 2.0 companies -- more than double the deal flow of the same period in 2005.

The amount represents 28% of the $1.6 billion VCs have plowed into consumer technology firms, and the interest is no doubt due to froth created by the recent Google/YouTube and News Corp./MySpace deals and the hope to get a front row seat for the next great buyout or IPO.

Are we in tech bubble territory? A number of firms feel that too much money is chasing too few good deals, and that there is a sort of "lemming effect" in operation.

However, many still believe that there are still opportunities in the market, and I for one believe that one area that can help an up-and-coming Web 2.0 company distinguish itself in this increasingly crowded space is to integrate VoIP, Video and other IP communications capabilities within their social networking framework. The technology has the capability to act as superglue for an online community -- providing a foundation for incredibly rich collaboration and other applications.

I've written a bit about this juicy opportunity before, most recently in my Internet Telephony magazine Mind Share 2.0 column, VoIP Mash-Ups in a Web 2.0 World.

I'm sure there are a bunch of great examples of IP Comm/Web 2.0 combinations out there -- and I'm all ears if you know of any -- and if so, please feel free to comment!

With all the buzz about newfangled battery technologies and lithium battery laptop explosions, wherefore the quaint old lead acid battery?

Peoria, IL-based Firefly Energy just announced that it will have an innovative carbon-graphite foam, lead-acid battery ready for production by the fourth quarter of 2007, following the announcement that the Caterpillar spin-off has completed a $10 million Series B equity round of financing, led by Milwaukee-based Stark Investments and including Caterpillar, KB Partners, the Illinois Finance Authority and the Tri-County Venture Capital Fund.

The Firefly Energy battery, which introduces the first significant improvement on lead acid battery technology in more than 150 years, is currently under development for use by the U.S. military and by lawn and equipment giant Husqvarna. After its initial production, Firefly will work to develop their advanced batteries for hybrid electric vehicles and hybrid trucks.

When compared to the current generation of lead-acid batteries, the Firefly Energy battery boasts:

- four times greater power density or less than 1/4 the weight
- double the life expectancy
- seven times faster recharge rate
- environmentally safer, using 80 percent less lead

The battery also supposedly has 1/10th the manufacturing cost of nickel metal hydride and lithium ion options.

BroadSoft held a grand opening ceremony for its new European Operations Center in Belfast earlier this week, and U.S. Consul General for Northern Ireland Howard Dean Pittman cut the ribbon to officially open the center. At the same time, BroadSoft announced that Irish broadband provider Digiweb was signed on as a new customer of its VoIP application software.

Digiweb plans to offer BroadWorks-enabled VoIP services to broadband and WiMax subscribers in Ireland.

Tomorrow, November 28, I'm honored to be the opening presenter at the 4th Annual Industry Conference on Broadband Communications and VoIP, hosted by the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA). The event is a half-day investor conference attended by institutional investors and analysts, and features companies that want to get more exposure on Wall Street, and includes CTI Group, mPhase, and VoIP Inc.

The New York Society of Securities Analysts (NYSSA) is the premier membership organization on Wall Street for portfolio managers and security analysts, and the largest society of its kind in the world. Founded in 1937, it is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating investors and advancing the competence of investment professionals. Founders included Benjamin Graham, considered to be the father of security analysis.