The investment is further sign of the growing importance of VoIP, a technology for making phone calls using the Internet Protocol, the world’s most popular method for sending data from one computer to another.
VoIP requires a network connection and a PC with a speaker and a microphone, or a device to convert a telephone’s analog signal into IP and vice versa.
After years of over-promising and under-delivering, VoIP is generating significant interest among telecom carriers, corporations and consumers, thanks to significant improvements in quality of service, and a big uptake in Japan.
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) led the funding round, with participation from Vonage’s senior management. The company plans to add additional area codes to its areas of service, and anticipates expanding globally, first to Canada, and later next year into Europe. The company expects to become profitable by mid-2004.
Although NEA has substantial ownership it does not a have majority. Vonage has now raised a total of $65 million, but its largest individual investor remains Jeffrey Citron, founder of computerized stock traders The Island ECN, which was purchased by Instinet for $500 million.
This article was based on material originally published by ComputerWire.
