Recently in Funding/Investments Category

Only three VoIP players "made list" on the current Deloitte 2006 Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing companies in North America.

To determine the fastest growing companies, Deloitte calculated the revenue growth percentage over five years, from 2001-2005.

Cbeyond came in at #22, M5 at #54 and Broadsoft at #99. M5 made the list in no small part due to its blazing revenue growth of 4,445% -- more than double the average increase of 2,145% among the 500 companies on the list.

By now I hope all of you have heard about the IP Communications Business Summit, a new workshop that's been added to the agenda at the upcoming Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO in San Diego.

In case you missed the email blasts, TMC and yours truly (RCG) are presenting this unique workshop to help educate the investment community -- including venture capitalists,
investment bankers, financial industry analysts, M&A specialists, angel investors and any other interested parties -- about the leading industry trends and market drivers in the hopes of ultimately identifying attractive IP communications companies.

The discussion will be feisty, informal, and hopefully fun and illuminating for everyone.

And since admission is free with any registration plan, you have one less reason to not check it out!

Summit Speaker Update:

We recently added notable industry analysts and bloggers to the panels, including Jon Arnold of J Arnold Associates, Ronald Gruia of Frost and Sullivan, and Ken Camp of IPadventures.com.

In addition, Ray J. Hernandez, Managing Director, Investment Banking at VC firm ROTH Capital Partners, LLC, has agreed to present a session described below:

Valuing Voice over IP Services:  A Public Market Perspective
October 10, 2006, 2:15 pm -- 3:00 pm

Certainly one of the most exciting things about the IP communications market is the growth of new businesses offering Voice over IP services.  Indeed, there is still a vast amount of untapped market potential in the industry, and the dramatic rebound of the economy together with renewed confidence in the industry’s prospects has helped the growth of Voice over IP services across all market sectors. As Voice over IP services providers build their businesses, they will want to know how much their businesses are worth.  In this session, you’ll learn about how Voice over IP is being valued in the public markets and what adds to and detracts from building value in a Voice over IP business.  

Continue Reading...

Managed Service Provider (MSP) Whaleback Systems just completed a $7.5 million Series B round of financing, led by Castile Ventures with participation from new investor Egan-Managed Capital and existing investor Ascent Venture Partners. The financing will be used to expand Whaleback's channel and geographic market coverage and to fund aggressive feature development for Whaleback's CrystalBlue SMB Voice Service.

Unlike traditional systems, the Whaleback CrystalBlue Voice Service is 100 percent premises- based and software-driven. It includes an IP PBX with Key System Unit features and Road Warrior Functionality, and features an all-inclusive, unlimited nationwide calling package for SMBs that need between 5 and 1500 stations.

Castile Ventures is investing its third fund in innovative enterprises developing future generations of enterprise, mass market and service provider information technology. Continue Reading...

Packet Island Inc., a provider of VoIP lifecycle management solutions for the SME VoIP market, received its first round of venture funding from a group of venture capital firms led by Startup Capital Ventures. The other VCs participating in the Series A round are Garage Technology Ventures and Rincon Ventures.

According to Andy Aczel and Preveen Kumar, co-founders of Packet Island, “We took two years to build a solid SaaS platform that had the architecture to support the deployment model and economic sensitivity of the SME market. By focusing our SaaS platform to solve the VoIP management needs of the IP Centrex market, we’ve been able to address a burning problem in a fast growing space, and gain industry recognition by means of key industry awards. We wanted investors who had the breadth and depth in the markets we were going after, and that’s exactly what we got with our VC syndicate led by Dr. John Davidson from Startup Capital Ventures.”

Dr. John Davidson, co-founder and CTO of LAN pioneer, Ungermann-Bass, and General Partner of Startup Capital Ventures, says  “As a long time participant in the networking industry, I have seen the remarkable scaling down of the price and size of enterprise networking gear without seeing an attendant reduction in complexity. Continue Reading...

The secret is out, and Emergent Network Solutions is the acquireree. Full press release of the deal follows:

Stratus Acquires Emergent Network Solutions for Next-generation Telecom Software and Services

Adds network convergence, VoIP and IMS solutions

FALL VON CONFERENCE, BOSTON, September 12, 2006 – Stratus Technologies, Inc. of Maynard, Massachusetts announced today the acquisition of Emergent Network Solutions of Allen, Texas, an innovator in advanced telecommunication software and services that enable carriers and service providers to integrate current and emerging network technologies. The purchase amount is $11 million, with provisions for additional performance-based payments.

Emergent’s focus on products and solutions for voice over the Internet (VoIP) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) builds out Stratus’ strategic business initiative and current solutions for Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) and Service Mediation, which enable disparate network technologies to operate together seamlessly. Stratus is committed to offering carriers and service providers interoperability between traditional wire-line networks, mobile and cellular networks, and rapidly growing VoIP and IMS services like those made possible by Emergent.

Continue Reading...

Just heard that Stratus Technologies is making an announcement tomorrow (Tues, Sept. 12) about an acquisition in the telecom space -- will post an update when I find out who it is.

Apparently, the word hasn't spread as far and wide as I had hoped, as a number of people I've spoken with recently weren't aware that the upcoming VoIP Demo and IP Communications Business Summit events have been rescheduled and moved venues.

Originally slated for this week in Santa Clara, the events are now proudly co-located with the Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO West, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA, October 10-13, 2006.

This is exciting on a number of levels, including the fact that the October timeframe is far better from a show schedule perspective than mid-summer, and also the events will be in a prime position to serve an even greater attendee base, as upwards of 9,000 IP communications-interested attendees are expected to converge on the convention center.

For more information about the agenda, visit the VoIP Demo show site here. Continue Reading...

Ayalogic, an Akron, Ohio-based, privately held business communications software company founded in 2002, just received a vote of confidence by its investors with the announcement of an additional $1.25 million, on top of the original Series A investment of $2M in October 2004. Most of the additional investment came from current Ayalogic investors, including Early Stage Partners LP of Cleveland, and Draper Triangle Venture LP. Both contributed about $500,000 each, and Northeast Ohio’s own non-profit venture development group, JumpStart Inc.,  added $168,500 to the investment. The company appears to be meeting a number of benchmarks for actual deployments and customer acquisition. 

Continue Reading...