VentureBeat

updated

Bubble Motion, a Silicon Valley company that gives you a way to send text messages (SMS) with your voice instead of text, has raised $14 million in additional funding.

It came from existing investor Sequoia Capital, and new investors Comcast Interactive Capital and NCD Investors.

The company says in a statement that it has more than 135 million users worldwide, which we haven’t confirmed, but it sounds inflated. (Could the company really mean the technology is enabled by carriers that have that many users? We’re asking for more info. Update: Our suspicion was founded; see below)

The lets you click on a key, talk, and send a short message — which Bubble Motion argues is effective because it lets you show emotion in ways that a regular text, IM or email don’t.

We first wrote in detail about the company nine months ago, when it first raised $10 million, and when it said 15 percent of subscribers to Vodafone Egypt were using the service.

Update: Turns out, the company’s 135 million number represents the number of users served by carriers Bubble Motion has partnered with. The actual number of people using the voice text is only a percentage of that. David Still, product manager, wouldn’t divulge the number, but said India is the largest market for its actual users and fastest growing. Its carrier partner there has 57 million subscribers, only a percentage of has used Bubble Motion. Bubble Motion is still not accessible within the U.S. With Comcast as an investor, Bubble Motion is hoping to turn up the discussions it is having with U.S. carriers, Still said. A company called Kirusa is Bubble Motion’s closest competitor.