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November 23, 2006
Seed-Funded WiVOIP Startup To Seek Financing
Earlier this month Add Partners announced a seed investment in a Luxembourg-based wireless VoIP (WiVoIP) start-up, called Wireless Technology Partners. We followed up for a couple of reasons. It was Add Partners first very early stage investment for several years, and two, the announcement brought attention to WTP before it even had a website - if you wanted to know more you couldn't just link through.
So we asked Niko von Huetz, an investment director at UK-based Add Partners, why the early announcement? After telling us about the "rare and unique" opportunity to assemble a team of this quality with "perfect market timing", he explained why.
"By announcing the seed round, it is a way to signal the firm will be raising its first round of VC soon. The startup aims to raise €3M in VC early in the new year," he said.
The deal is also part of the firm's “warehousing program” for its next fund, and it signals that the fund, AddTwo, will be launched shortly.
von Huetz gave a bit of insight into how Add Partners works the early stage. "We tend to go in very early when adding new firms to the portfolio. The founder, David Parsons [an American living in Paris] is an IP [internet protocol] and wireless voice expert, but it is also his first time as CEO and you don't want to have a badly groomed venture when it comes to Series A round," said von Huetz.
Using Skype and other VOIP services on WiFi isn't as seamless, secure, and user-friendly as it could be. WTP hopes to change that with solutions for carriers, handset-makers, and service providers.(Pictured left: the Skype Netgear phone).
Just in case readers missed the press release, the company is developing VoIP solutions for handsets equipped to handle wireless LAN communications. The solutions, it claims, will solve some known integration and quality problems with IP telephony on mobile Wifi handsets, as well as considering security, and cost of implementation. The firm's business model is based on licensing its solutions.
von Huetz says that the WTP team has the directly relevant experience required and they're "the only team" developing this particular set of technologies for WiVOIP.
"The press announcement provides enough information to draw the attention of potential customers, including handset makers, network operators, and resellers," responded von Huetz. There is more information available but only under non-disclosure agreement, he added. The a:c euro doesn't do NDAs, so we'll just have to wait and see what WTP will deliver.
Read - Wireless Technology Partners Secures seed funding from Add Partners (press rel.)
Posted on November 23, 2006 06:30 AM | Posted to Wireless | Permalink
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