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24 hours after completing the purchase of Morecom by Liberate Technology, which will derive a smaller than the expected $ 20 million profit, the Mofet venture capital fund announced a new investment. Mofet has invested $ 1.85 million in TeleMessage, as part of a private round of capitalization, to the amount of $ 9 million. TeleMessage raised the funds privately, at a valuation of $ 27 million, after the money.
Aside from Mofet, this round of fund raising included the Infinity fund (member of the Clal group), and three European groups: Holland Ventures, a Dutch fund, the German Wellington fund, and the Belgian FLV fund, which also led the investment. This round of funding was meant to expand the company's development activity, marketing and sales.
TeleMessage was founded in '99 by a group of Israeli entrepreneurs who had previously served in Army Intelligence and Air-Force units, headed by Guy Levit. The company developed software that makes it possible for anyone, anywhere in the world, to send or receive line-based or text messages from anyone else, at any time or place. The messages simultaneously follow their recipients by all possible communication media: telephone, e-mail, Internet, fax, mobile phone, beeper (pager), ICA. The recipients can communicate, even if they are reached by different communication media.
Mofet CEO indicated that unlike the jfax and efax companies, which developed from the world of faxes and branched into unified messaging, TeleMessage does not focus on presenting all messages received in the organization on a single screen. The company focuses on developing a tool that will make it possible to obtain instant communication from every communication medium to every communication medium, depending on the client's preference, making it possible, for example, to initiate communication by e-mail and respond immediately by mobile telephone. According to Bar, TeleMessage's different focus, as a unified messaging company, is expressed by its different target audience. TeleMessage addresses companies working in a fluctuating price environment, such as brokerage companies, which require constant and immediate communication, as well as to Internet service providers and communications companies.
Haaretz, June 26th, 2000 |