SIPphone Announces $6.0 Million Venture Capital Investment; Funding To Expand Popular PC Based VOIP Service To WiFi And Mobile Phones

Business Wire, Feb 15, 2006

SAN DIEGO -- SIPphone Inc, developers of the popular VOIP software Gizmo Project have secured $6.0 million in funding to expand their SIP standard service to non-PC devices such as adapters, routers, WiFi handsets and dual mode mobile phones.

"The release of Gizmo Project has driven over 400,000 registered users to our PC-based service, but our goals go beyond free calls between PCs," says SIPphone CEO, Michael Robertson. "We want to seamlessly link the internet and the traditional calling world of landlines and mobile phones and that's becoming possible as low cost SIP-based devices such as dual-mode mobile phones and WiFi phones become a reality."

SIPphone will use the investment to expand their VOIP platform to portable devices that do not require PCs to make or receive calls and promote adoption of the open standard auto-provisioning system plug-n-dial. (see: www.plugndial.com) The San Diego-based headquarters is expected to triple in size over the next year with hiring primarily in business development and engineering.

The financing round was lead by New York based venture firm Dawntreader Ventures and is the first external funding for SIPphone. Joining the board of SIPphone is Dawntreader managing director Edward G. Sim. Private investors from Michael Robertson's previous digital music startup MP3.com Inc. also participated in the funding.

About Dawntreader Ventures

Dawntreader Ventures (www.dtventures.com) is a New York-based venture capital firm focused on building market leading technology enterprises in partnership with entrepreneurs and management teams. Founded in 1998, Dawntreader manages approximately $300 million and invests in innovative software, Internet, and digital media companies. Representative portfolio companies include GoToMy PC (sold to Citrix), LivePerson (Nasdaq:LPSN), Visible World, Xora, Answers.com (Nasdaq:ANSW), and Deepnines.

About SIPphone Inc.

SIPphone is a San Diego based voice over IP (VOIP) that provides a free dial tone service for any SIP based software or hardware device complete with customizable voicemail. They provide free VOIP Gizmo Project software at http://gizmoproject.com for Macintosh, Microsoft Windows and Linux computers which enable high quality free calling and IM worldwide using any internet connected computer. SIPphone is a founding member of IM Federation (IMfederation.com) promoting interconnects with all networks and currently connects with Google's Google Talk and more than a hundred other networks.