LignUp Secures $9.8 Million in Series B Financing; Intel Capital, Entrepreneurs' Funds, Weber Capital, Tim Draper and Regis McKenna Reinforce Market Potential for Communications Enabled Business Applications.MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- LignUp Corporation, a leading provider of converged communications solutions, today announced the close of a $9.8 million Series B funding round. The round included new investments from Intel Capital, The Entrepreneurs' Funds, Weber Capital Management, Draper Associates and Silicon Valley luminary Regis McKenna This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. . The round also included follow-on investments from Series A investors Wasatch Venture Fund, an affiliate fund of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with affiliate offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $4.5 billion in capital commitments. , the University of Utah's University Venture Fund, and vSpring Capital vSpring Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm located in Salt Lake City, Utah. The fund currently manages approximately $200M and investing out of its second fund. . "Industry attention is shifting from cheap Internet phone services to the integration of IP telephony The two-way transmission of voice over a packet-switched IP network, which is part of the TCP/IP protocol suite. The terms "IP telephony" and "voice over IP" (VoIP) are synonymous. within real business solutions," said Tim Draper, General Partner, Draper Associates. "LignUp's flexible development platform uniquely positions the company in this new market, providing the potential to write the next chapter in the history of telephony." The LignUp Communications Platform, a communications application server platform, allows next generation telephony service providers, on-demand business software providers, traditional independent software vendors and online community portals to quickly build and deploy innovative telephony services that enhance customer interactions and drive revenue. This flexible, highly scalable communications server See network access server, modem server, terminal server and communications controller. (operating system) Communications Server - IBM's rebranding of ACF. allows enterprises to integrate and deliver voice, data, and video over a single IP network. "Organizations need dynamic development capabilities to realize the full potential of applications and services using service oriented architectures and IMS (1) See IP Multimedia Subsystem. (2) (Information Management System) An early IBM hierarchical DBMS for IBM mainframes. IMS was widely implemented throughout the 1970s under MVS and continues to be used under z/OS. ," said Mark Lydon, investment manager for the communications infrastructure sector at Intel Capital. "LignUp's market momentum demonstrates the company's ability to address this need and accelerate the proliferation of next generation VoIP solutions." LignUp will use the B round funding to make further enhancements to the LignUp platform and continue to extend global operations Global Operations is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Barking Dog Studios and published by both Crave Entertainment and Electronic Arts. It was released in March of 2002, following its public multiplayer beta version which contained only the Quebec map. supporting a growing base of over 140 customers in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , Europe and Asia. "These investments represent the latest industry validation of the LignUp vision," said Hector Saldana, Chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , LignUp Corporation. "With voice becoming another application on the network, individuals and organizations can interact in new and dynamic ways unimaginable just a few years ago. We look forward to continuing to work with the industry's leading innovators to accelerate the adoption of telephony solutions that truly enhance business performance." Other New Investor Perspectives "LignUp's platform fills the growing enterprise demand for scalable, seamless voice-enabled applications to enhance employee productivity and customer satisfaction at the business process level," said Regis McKenna, McKenna Ventures LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol . "I see LignUp's platform stimulating a host of innovative communications-enabled business applications allowing businesses to respond with high-touch in real-time to any particular market and customer need." "LignUp's market strategy positions the company where the evolution of VoIP communications meets the evolution of the on-demand software model," Jeffrey T. Webber, managing director of the Entrepreneurs' Funds. "LignUp's remarkable management team has the experience and dynamism to execute this 'cross-hair' strategy and help shape what is becoming one of the most exciting technology markets to emerge over the last 15 years." "LignUp enables service providers and enterprises to innovate, differentiate and better compete using VoIP technology," said Gene Weber, Managing Partner, Weber Capital Management, LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control . "LignUp gives customers the flexibility to deploy a VoIP solution that has no limitations." About LignUp Corporation LignUp Corporation delivers a powerful converged IP communications platform deployed with hosted telephony, voice mail, unified messaging, auto attendant and other Web applications. The 100% software, native-SIP platform is powered by LignUp Call Control XML XML in full Extensible Markup Language. Markup language developed to be a simplified and more structural version of SGML. It incorporates features of HTML (e.g., hypertext linking), but is designed to overcome some of HTML's limitations. (CCTRL) and LignUp Media Control XML (MCTRL) and enables solution integrators and service providers to quickly and easily create unique, high margin VoIP applications and services. The proven LignUp Communications Platform is deployed today in over 140 organizations around the world and is distributed in Japan by SkyWave and SkyWave partners Hitachi IT, NEC-SI and Net One Systems. LignUp has been named to the Pulver 100 list of leading private VoIP companies, and has been recognized for innovation with the TMC TMC Technology Marketing Corporation (Norwalk, Connecticut) TMC Texas Medical Center (Houston, TX) TMC Traffic Message Channel TMC The Movie Channel TMC Traffic Management Center Labs Innovation Award and the EuroStart Channel Excellence Award. LignUp is also a founding member of FastLign, an industry alliance formed to reduce interoperability risks and increase speed to market for VoIP service providers. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, LignUp has offices in Salt Lake City, London and Tokyo. Visit www.LignUp.com for more information. About Wasatch Venture Fund Wasatch Venture Fund specializes in early-stage, information technology and life science investments. With headquarters in Salt Lake City, Wasatch also maintains offices in Albuquerque, New Mexico “Albuquerque” redirects here. For other uses, see Albuquerque (disambiguation). Albuquerque (pronounced [ˈæl.bə.kɚ.kiː], Spanish: [al.βu. , and Phoenix. Since its inception in 1994, Wasatch has focused exclusively on working with driven entrepreneurs to build successful technology companies. For more information, visit www.wasatchvc.com. About Intel Capital Intel Capital, Intel's venture capital organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer Internet and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$4 billion in more than 1,000 companies spanning more than 30 countries. During this time, about 160 portfolio companies have been acquired and another 150 have gone public on exchanges around the world. In 2005, Intel Capital invested about US$265 million in about 140 deals with approximately 60 percent of funds invested outside the United States. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com. About vSpring Capital vSpring is an early-stage venture capital fund focusing on investment opportunities in information technology and life sciences. vSpring capitalizes on the managerial skills and operating experience of its principals to successfully invest in and mentor early stage companies. vSpring has offices in Salt Lake City, Utah For ships of the United States Navy of the same name, see . Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake, or its initials, S.L.C. and Los Alamos, New Mexico Los Alamos (Spanish: Los Álamos, meaning "The Cottonwoods") is an unincorporated townsite in Los Alamos County, New Mexico. The population of the townsite alone was 11,909 at the 2000 census. The townsite or "the hill" is one part of town while White Rock is also part of the town. . For more information, visit www.vspring.com. About Draper Associates Led by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Venture Capitalist An investor who provides capital to either start-up ventures or support small companies who wish to expand but do not have access to public funding. Notes: Venture capitalists usually expect higher returns for the additional risks taken. Tim Draper, Draper Associates is affiliated with Draper Fisher Jurvetson. About The Entrepreneurs' Funds The Entrepreneurs' Funds include The Entrepreneurs' Fund I, The Entrepreneurs' Fund II and the Entrepreneurs' Growth Fund. Headed by Managing Director Jeffrey T. Webber, the funds focus on companies exhibiting the basic business model and creative use of technology that position them for explosive growth in the aftermath of the technology market correction Market correction A relatively short-term drop in stock market prices, generally viewed as bringing overpriced stocks back to a level closer to companies' actual values. . About McKenna Ventures, LP McKenna Ventures, LP is a private investment group that works with early-stage, Silicon Valley high tech companies. About Weber Capital Management Weber Capital Management, LLC is a crossover investor Crossover Investor An investor who invests prior to, during and following a company's initial public offering. Notes: This investment strategy aims to increase returns by investing in a good company at numerous stages of its business life cycle. in mid to late-stage ventures and microcap public companies. Based in San Francisco, the firm has invested over $100 million since 1994 and currently holds positions in about 35 companies, one-third of which are private. Our three current funds invest in the technology, communications and healthcare industries. More information: www.webercapital.com. About University Venture Fund The University Venture Fund is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance the quality of education for both undergraduate and graduate students throughout the country. The goal of the Venture Fund is to mirror private sector venture capital firms Name Location Founding date Managing Partners/Directors Specialty Capital managed 5AM Ventures Menlo Park, CA; Waltham, MA 2002 John Diekman, PhD (managing partner), Scott Rocklage, PhD (managing partner), Andrew Schwab (managing partner) life sciences $200M [1] , provide a real world business environment for students and allow them to be mentored by experienced business and investment professionals. The Venture Fund, partnering with other venture capital firms, will invest in select companies who pass investment criteria, which includes community development. For more information, visit www.uventurefund.com. |
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