[May 6, 2005]

Vonage Scores $200 Mil

BY JOHANNE TORRES

VoIP-based calling service provider Vonage Holdings Corp. announced today that it scored a whopping $200 million in its latest round of venture capital. The round was lead by Bain Capital, Inc. of Boston, Mass.

The company told the Associated Press (AP) that this was the largest venture capital investment this year following the recent $105 million in a round led by Menlo Park, CA-based New Enterprise Associates. With this latest round, the Edison, NJ-based company managed to raise $400 million in funding so far.

It has been reported that the VoIP services provider will use this funding to carry out expansion plans in the Asia Pacific region. The company already launched services in the United States, in Canada, and also in the United Kingdom.

Vonage claims to have a total of more than 600,000 subscribers. The company says that by adding close to 15,000 subscribers weekly, it expects to grow the total amount to more than a million customers by the end of 2005.

The company has been all over the news this week due to problems with E911 access. This issue, brought on by emergency calls which were unable to reach emergency personnel, could eventually cost the company pretty hefty penalties. Vonage currently faces legal action from both, Connecticut and Michigan state attorney generals. Specifically, the suits accuse Vonage of misleading consumers in the state about E911 access when using the Internet telephony service.

To attack the suits, Vonage announced this week it teamed up with Verizon to set up what the companies call the first E9-1-1 territory-wide deployment of NENA's proposed I2 technical standard.

We shall see how much Vonage will have to shell out of the newly funded million dollar bank account to pay off the lawsuit penalties if any are imposed.

Vonage Holdings Corp.
www.vonage.com