Friendster and Voxify with new rounds

Filed in archive Venture Capital on August 21, 2006

Two companies I have been watching for quite some time are reporting new rounds today:

CNN reports:

Friendster, the social networking site that helped introduce the service to the online world, is expected to announce today a $10 million round of venture capital funding, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Friendster, which has lost marketshare to newer entrants Myspace.com and Facebook Inc. in recent years, will receive the funding from DAG Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Benchmark Capital, the newspaper reported.

Voxify the speech agent pioneer has raised $5 million:

Voxify Inc., an Alameda, Calif.-based provider of speech recognition technologies for automated customer service, has raised $5 million in Series C-1 funding, according to a regulatory filing. Existing shareholders include Sigma Partners, El Dorado Ventures and Palomar Ventures.

Here is press release from Voxify dated May 2006 outlining the corporate growth:

Continuing to deliver on a successful vertical market strategy, Voxify saw a rise in Automated Agent adoption across its portfolio of industry suites. Representative customers include many industry leaders, such as:

-- Ticketmaster in Ticketing & Entertainment;
-- Rite Aid in Pharmacy Retail;
-- Hammacher Schlemmer in Catalog Retail;
-- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in Hospitality;
-- Travelocity in Travel; and
-- Continental Airlines in Airline