SIPphone gets $6M

Michael sent me this Press Release yesterday announcing that SIPphone had just secured $6M in funding to bolster the Gizmo Project with a Mobile and WiFi extension.

"The release of Gizmo Project has driven over 400,000 registered users to our PC based service, but our goals go beyond free calls between PCs," says SIPphone CEO, Michael Robertson. "We want to seamlessly link the internet and the traditional calling world of landlines and mobile phones and that's becoming possible as low cost SIP based devices such as dual mode mobile phones and wifi phones become a reality."

Apparently Michael plans to expand the San Diego office by 3-fold in order to build this next generation of Gizmo.

The financing round was lead by New York based venture firm Dawntreader Ventures and is the first external funding for SIPphone. Joining the board of SIPphone is Dawntreader managing director Edward G. Sim. Private investors from Michael Robertson's previous digital music startup MP3.com Inc. also participated in the funding.

It looks like the VCs are making their moves into VoIP and IP Communications in a big way which means great things for the technologies and consumers that use them. I am going to try and catch up with Michael over the next few days and see if I can get a phone interview for the podcast.

SIPphone Announces $6.0 Million Venture Capital Investment
Funding To Expand Popular PC Based VOIP Service To Wifi And Mobile Phones


San Diego, California Feb 14 -- SIPphone Inc, developers of the popular VOIP software Gizmo Project have secured $6.0 Million in funding to expand their SIP standard service to non-PC devices such as adapters, routers, wifi handsets and dual mode mobile phones.


"The release of Gizmo Project has driven over 400,000 registered users to our PC based service, but our goals go beyond free calls between PCs," says SIPphone CEO, Michael Robertson. "We want to seamlessly link the internet and the traditional calling world of landlines and mobile phones and that's becoming possible as low cost SIP based devices such as dual mode mobile phones and wifi phones become a reality."


SIPphone will use the investment to expand their VOIP platform to portable devices which do not require PCs to make or receive calls and promote adoption of the open standard auto-provisioning system plug-n-dial. see: www.plugndial.com The San Diego headquarters is expected to triple in size over the next year with hiring primarily in business development and engineering.


The financing round was lead by New York based venture firm Dawntreader Ventures and is the first external funding for SIPphone. Joining the board of SIPphone is Dawntreader managing director Edward G. Sim. Private investors from Michael Robertson's previous digital music startup MP3.com Inc. also participated in the funding.


About Dawntreader Ventures: Dawntreader Ventures (www.dtventures.com) is a New York-based venture capital firm focused on building market leading technology enterprises in partnership with entrepreneurs and management teams. Founded in 1998, Dawntreader manages approximately $300 million and invests in innovative software, Internet, and digital media companies. Representative portfolio companies include GoToMy PC (sold to Citrix), LivePerson (Nasdaq: LPSN), Visible World, Xora, Answers.com (Nasdaq: ANSW), and Deepnines.


About SIPphone Inc: SIPphone is a San Diego based voice over IP (VOIP) which provides a free dial tone service for any SIP based software or hardware device complete with customizable voicemail. They provide free VOIP Gizmo Project software at http://gizmoproject.com for Macintosh, Microsoft Windows and Linux computers which enable high quality free calling and IM worldwide using any internet connected computer. SIPphone is a founding member of IM Federation (IMfederation.com) promoting interconnects with all networks and currently connects with Google's Google Talk and more than a hundred other networks.

For more information about SIPphone or Gizmo Project, please contact:
Jason Droege
[email protected]

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This page contains a single entry by published on February 15, 2006 11:19 AM.

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