T-Online Venture Fund Makes Strategic Investment in JAJAH
Today we are announcing that T-Online Venture Fund, the corporate venture capital entity of Deutsche Telekom, invests in JAJAH. The investment of the T-Online Venture Fund is part of a $20 million USD investment round, co-led by Intel Capital.
“The agreement is unprecedented. JAJAH is the first Voice 2.0 company to receive this level of industry validation and support. The long-term implications can’t be understated,” said Roman Scharf, JAJAH co-founder.
T-Online Venture Fund, already well known for service and technology innovation investments, is expecting attractive synergies for Deutsche Telekom business units by bringing JAJAH web embedded solutions to consumer and business customers. JAJAH sees a world where all telephony becomes IP based. As this happens, new classes of services and solutions are going to emerge. In this new world, the consumer is the big winner. Our vision is to be at the forefront of innovation, creating new, richer ways for users to communicate.
“JAJAH brings together the best of the Internet with the best of telephony,” said Trevor Healy, JAJAH CEO. “It is great to receive this validation from a clear leader in the telecommunications industry, whom we have always considered the key partner in offering world-class solutions to consumers. The T-Online Venture Fund investment brings JAJAH unprecedented strength, validation of our proposition, and confirmation of our leadership in voice communication solutions.”
Deutsche Telekom, also known in the U.S. for its mobile arm, T-Mobile, is one of the worldwide leading telecommunication companies with over 61 Billion Euros Revenue ($80 Billion USD) in 2006.
“The communication landscape is rapidly evolving,” said Andreas Kindt, Chairman of the Investment Committee of T-Online Venture Fund and Member of T-Com Management Board for IT. “By investing in companies like JAJAH, we will be able to continue to bring users around the world the innovative solutions they are looking for. The investment aligns perfectly with our strategy of ‘Focus, fix and grow’ while staying at the forefront of communication innovation.”
JAJAH recently announced it has acquired more than 2 million users from 55 countries in their first year of business by providing innovative next-generation calling solutions, as well as ultra-low cost phone connections to the most called places on Earth. Unlike traditional VoIP solutions, JAJAH uses regular phones and does not require software or special equipment. A user simply initiates the call from www.jajah.com and JAJAH connects the call to either landline or mobile phones, for a fraction traditional cost. Additionally, users can make the same calls from many mobile phones and from webenabled smart phones.
“JAJAH brings VoIP-like advantages to regular phones,” said Daniel Mattes, JAJAH cofounder, “Unlike other solutions, JAJAH integrates with the existing telephony infrastructure. It’s one of the reasons our call quality is so high. Partnering with such strong and committed investors like T-Online Venture Fund will allow us to continue to provide our users unsurpassed quality and value, and allow us to maintain our rapid rate of innovation.”
“JAJAH is making strides not just by innovating, but also by collaborating with major industry leaders that can dramatically expand JAJAH’s market reach,” said Will Stofega, analyst at IDC. “It’s a smart move, and JAJAH is executing very well.”