GigaOM

Few days after Motorola invested in Asylum Telecom, news of yet another VoIP investment. AccessLine Communications, a hosted and managed voice services provider for the business market, raised $9 million in equity financing from existing investors Mellon Ventures, Venrock Associates, Gabriel Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs and Alexander Hutton Venture Partners. They will need the money, for most of the hosted VoIP services are being targeted at small and medium sized businesses. Speakeasy, Covad’s GoBeam and most bell operating companies are going after this market. In other words, a supremely crowded market place, which will result in many a few efforts going belly-up. I am not sure what the VC strategies are, but the general feeling is that VoIP is going to be hot, so lets throw a lot at the wall, and lets see what sticks. In 2004, the VoIP investments were around $400 million. 2005 is off to a rocking start! Last year, 3i Group, Accel Partners, BCE Capital, Enterprise Partners Venture Capital and Storm Ventures were the most active VoIP venture capitalists.