VCs Pump $116 Million Into Voice-Over-IP Firm

Innomedia Inc., a developer of voice-over-IP technology, disclosed today it has secured first-round financing totaling $115.5 million. The company says it will spend the money on engineering, marketing, and building out its voice-over-IP network.

Investors include well-known venture-capital firms such as Vertex Management, Goldman Sachs, Walden International Investment Group, and EDB Investments. Other investors include Creative Technology Ltd., as well as CSK Venture Capital and ISAO, two companies that belong to the Group of Sega Enterprises/CSK Corp. Private investors include Kai-Wa Ng, InnoMedia's chairman and CEO, and Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative Technology Ltd.

InnoMedia offers end-to-end voice-over-IP networking for consumers, service providers, and businesses. Telephony products from InnoMedia include wireless Internet devices, computer cards, video phones, and gateway products that let calls from traditional phones travel via the Web to another phone.

Investors were attracted by the potential for Innomedia's technology to be incorporated into a broad range of consumer platforms, says Pete Dailey, director of voice-over-IP research at Frost & Sullivan. "Innomedia's applied technology will be integrated into such a breadth and variety of consumer appliances that the company is extremely appealing investment."