Nimbuzz, the mobile VoIP and IM startup based in the Netherlands that offers you the kitchen sink of services — all for free, except for data charges, of course — has raised $15 million more in a second round of financing led by Naspers/MIH.
Meanwhile, competitor Fring announced the first add-ons developed by Fring and thifd parties via its API platform.
VentureBeat covered Nimbuzz’s impressive VoIP shotgun offering (including its social networking widgets, etc.) last month. However, there are so many competitors in this VoIP area (130 startups, according to one count) and such small margins, it’s very difficult to see how a company can make it big. Nimbuzz also appears to be doing too much. Indeed, its client software is about a 1 megabyte download, as Techcrunch UK points out.
Our internal panel decided not to make Nimbuzz or Fring nominees for MobileBeat’s best mobile companies. As we said at the time, we hope they can prove us wrong and become a big hit regardless. Nimbuzz’ Tobias Kemper said the company is focused this year almost exclusively on growth but plans to make money eventually via white-label services, advertising and deals with carriers and social networking companies.
Nimbuzz is certainly doing a lot, and swinging for the fences. They told Techcrunch UK they have a million registered mobile users so far — as recently as May, CMO Tariq Dag Khan mentioned that they had only half that number. The company hopes to get to 5 million users by the end of the year and has been helped with significant funding. It’s already taken $10 million from Mangrove Capital Partners. Mangrove, an early Skype investor, also participated in the latest round.
Nimbuzz first launched Java and Symbian versions to support 500 handsets in 50 countries. The latest cash will be used to extend to Windows Mobile, iPhone and Android.
However, it’s worth noting that players like Fring have already released an iPhone version (that works with jailbroken iPhones).
Fring released a taste of the first add-ons built via its APIs, which include features such as social networking (interacting on Facebook and Orkut), video and email notification features. Screenshots and YouTube clip below.
1:11 pm
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1:48 am
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10:12 am
Mobile VoIP company Nimbuzz raises $15M more, while competitor Fring shows off its stuff | businessuu said:
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12:36 am
Nimbuzz - 多功能一体化的通讯客户端 | 帕兰映像 said:
[...] 如果你喜欢Fring，那一定也会对Nimbuzz感兴趣。Nimbuzz是一个集成了IM、短信、语音留言、文件分享以及VoIP等功能的一体化通讯工具。它刚刚又收获了1500万美金的风险投资，成为了Fring一个强有力的竞争对手。除了桌面应用，Nimbuzz也有一个网页版，但是非常奇怪，不支持中文输入。另外，还可以下载Nimbuzz到你的手机，既能聊天，又能打网络电话. Nimbuzz比Fring更好的地方是，除了手机客户端外，它还提供了PC客户端以及网页的Widget。无论在手机上还是PC上，都可以拿 Nimbuzz作为一款不错的多协议IM工具来使用。另外，Nimbuzz的短信、语音信箱、文件分享等功能也因此变得更为实用，我们不仅仅可以利用它在 手机与PC之间很方便的进行交流；更可以在Blog上加上Nimbuzz的Widget，随时接收读者的文字、语音以及其它文件。 [...]
7:31 am
fring mobile voip australia » fring in the news said:
[...] Elsewhere VoipNews reports that fring and facebook are “Facebook friends”…. …and VoIP seems to be cutting into landline phone business, with mVoIP soon to follow. So says FierceVoIP. And, the specialist venture capital news service, VentureBeat has some nice words about fring too. [...]