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Vivox Raises $6.8 Million in Series C Round of Funding
si Team
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Vivox, a provider of voice chat services for online games and virtual worlds, has received $6.8 million in series C round of funding, bringing the total funding to $19.6 million. This round of funding is led by IDG Ventures along with the participation of Benchmark Capital, Canaan Partners, and GrandBanks Capital.

Planning to utilize this fund to accelerate its growth, the Massachusetts based Vivox offers a set of features that improve the user experience and provide revenue opportunities for clients through voice-based virtual goods. Providing the managed voice service, Vivox connects communities and people across multiple platforms including PCs, game consoles, and Web based social networks. Last year, the company had rolled out a voice-chat application for Facebook, and in the first half of 2010 it plans to make customer announcements in social media spaces including social networks and social shopping. Monty Sharma, Co-Founder and Vice President, Product Management and Marketing of Vivox, says, “We plan to build ways for voice-enabled Web applications to replace traditional voice capabilities on mobile devices.”

Supporting 20 million users in more than 180 countries, and over two billion minutes of voice chat per month, Vivox’s usage rate has grown by 50 percent in the past 45 days. This growth seems to be powered by a handful of customer wins during the second half of 2009. Its customers include online game and virtual world developers and publishers such as CCP Games, Icarus Studios, Linden Lab, NCsoft, Realtime Worlds, Sony Online Entertainment, and Wizards of the Coast.

The real differentiator that makes Vivox stand out among its competitors is that its services have improved the gaming experience for millions of people, allowing them to team up in multi-player games. Its competitors include Dolby, Skype, Teamspeak, and Ventrilo.

Founded in 2005, Vivox currently has about 35 employees and is expected to grow past 50 in the next 12 to 18 months. Phil Sanderson, Managing Director of IDG Ventures, will soon take a seat on Vivox’s board.

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