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April 03, 2008
vlingo Secures $20 Million Financing Led by Yahoo!
By Anil Sharma TMCnet Contributing Editor
vlingo has secured $20 million in Series B financing, which would be used to fuel international expansion and continue its product research and development.
Led by Yahoo!, the round also included existing investors Charles River Ventures and Sigma Partners. As part of the investment, a Yahoo! nominee will join vlingo's board of directors.
Yahoo!, leveraging this relationship, announced the launch of a voice-enabled version of Yahoo! oneSearch, a revolutionary new mobile search client that supports unstructured, open-ended voice searches that allows the consumer to speak their query as they would type it into the search box.
"Yahoo! is a pioneer in mobile services and continues to revolutionize the mobile Internet experience. We launched Yahoo! oneSearch globally in 2007 and defined the standard of excellence for mobile search services," Steve Boom, senior vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo!, Inc said in a press release.
"By integrating vlingo's innovative speech recognition technology into Yahoo! oneSearch, we're taking mobile search to the next level and enabling consumers to get the answers they want by simply speaking into their mobile phone."
Vlingo launched a beta version of its voice-powered interface in August 2007.
"We have been thrilled by the market interest in vlingo since our beta launch last year, providing true confirmation of the revolutionary technology we have developed," said Dave Grannan, vlingo's president and CEO.
"We have aggressive expansion plans over the next year that will take vlingo overseas and across a broad range of mobile phones here in the U.S. We're eager to leverage Yahoo!'s (News - Alert) expertise and reach as we execute against this strategy."
"Having a strategic investor of Yahoo!'s stature in the industry is a great validation of what has been built at vlingo," said Izhar Armony, a general partner, at Charles River Ventures, which led the Series A investment. "We look forward to having Yahoo! as an investor to help us grow this business."
Vlingo is a voice-powered user interface that unlocks access to mobile phone wireless data services. Vlingo allows users to speak or type into any vlingo-enabled text box and get accurate, easy and consistent access to all the information, entertainment and communication made possible through today's mobile applications.
By giving consumers control of the mobile Internet with the power of their voices, vlingo provides a quantum leap in usability for mobile data services that are currently restricted by limited user interfaces.
Anil Sharma is a TMCnet Contributing Editor.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP
Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. Today’s featured white paper is Level the Playing Field With Business VoIP, brought to you by Speakeasy (News - Alert).
Led by Yahoo!, the round also included existing investors Charles River Ventures and Sigma Partners. As part of the investment, a Yahoo! nominee will join vlingo's board of directors.
Yahoo!, leveraging this relationship, announced the launch of a voice-enabled version of Yahoo! oneSearch, a revolutionary new mobile search client that supports unstructured, open-ended voice searches that allows the consumer to speak their query as they would type it into the search box.
"Yahoo! is a pioneer in mobile services and continues to revolutionize the mobile Internet experience. We launched Yahoo! oneSearch globally in 2007 and defined the standard of excellence for mobile search services," Steve Boom, senior vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo!, Inc said in a press release.
"By integrating vlingo's innovative speech recognition technology into Yahoo! oneSearch, we're taking mobile search to the next level and enabling consumers to get the answers they want by simply speaking into their mobile phone."
Vlingo launched a beta version of its voice-powered interface in August 2007.
"We have been thrilled by the market interest in vlingo since our beta launch last year, providing true confirmation of the revolutionary technology we have developed," said Dave Grannan, vlingo's president and CEO.
"We have aggressive expansion plans over the next year that will take vlingo overseas and across a broad range of mobile phones here in the U.S. We're eager to leverage Yahoo!'s (News - Alert) expertise and reach as we execute against this strategy."
"Having a strategic investor of Yahoo!'s stature in the industry is a great validation of what has been built at vlingo," said Izhar Armony, a general partner, at Charles River Ventures, which led the Series A investment. "We look forward to having Yahoo! as an investor to help us grow this business."
Vlingo is a voice-powered user interface that unlocks access to mobile phone wireless data services. Vlingo allows users to speak or type into any vlingo-enabled text box and get accurate, easy and consistent access to all the information, entertainment and communication made possible through today's mobile applications.
By giving consumers control of the mobile Internet with the power of their voices, vlingo provides a quantum leap in usability for mobile data services that are currently restricted by limited user interfaces.
Anil Sharma is a TMCnet Contributing Editor.
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP
Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. Today’s featured white paper is Level the Playing Field With Business VoIP, brought to you by Speakeasy (News - Alert).
