[Posted on March 26, 2008 - 3:12 PM]
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For the second time in a week, a startup positioned at the crossroads of voice-mail and text messaging has received a follow-on round of investment. This time it's Bubble Motion Inc., which added Comcast Interactive Capital and NCD Investors to a syndicate that already included Sequoia Capital's U.S. and India investment units, closing a new $14 million Series B round intended to fuel continued international expansion and product development.
The deal comes only days after voice-to-text service SpinVox announced a $100 million round, apparently in lieu of going public. The two don't compete directly: Bubble Motion essentially sends short audio files from person to person and notifies the recipient by SMS, rather than transcribing via voice recognition software. Bubble Motion offers its service in India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Egypt, with the U.S. and Europe on the relatively near horizon, says vice president of marketing David Still.
Still also suggested that Bubble Motion intends to move beyond the peer-to-peer messaging space, but he wouldn't say how. One possibility is that it will enter the social networking calling sector occupied by companies such as Jaxtr Inc. and Jangl Inc. Still says Bubble Motion will likely make an announcement pertaining to social networking in the coming weeks or months.
For Sequia, it's yet another international investment, which the firm has been stepping up of late. (Bubble Motion was founded in Singapore and has several offices in Asia, but is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif.) Still says Bubble Motion valued Comcast's content distribution network as a differentiator, although he declined to give details about NCD Investors, which doesn't seem too keen on publicity. The new deal follows Bubble Motion's $10 million Series A round in 2006. - Paul Bonanos
See March 26 press release from Bubble Motion
See March 18 post on Sequoia's international strategy
See March 20 post about SpinVox
