Jaxter Closes $10 Million in Financing
Posted: August 28th, 2007 | Author: Garrett Smith | Filed under: VoIP Commentary | 1 Comment »Just When I Thought VoIP Was Dull
Okay so this is really only mildly exciting. Money continues to flow towards VoIP services. Jaxtr, raised a $10 million Series A round led by August Capital with Mayfield Fund, Draper Richards, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Luxemburg-based Mangrove Capital participating. According to sources, they also have around 1 million users. Not too bad except for the fact that will need more than 20 Million users in order to break even in the next year. 20 x times growth in a year…yeah – right.
I like Jaxtr, but I just do not see 20 million people paying for the service. I do not think the market is that big. I mean are their that many people who want to offer people the ability to call them anonymously? Outside of dating sites and social networks (but even then how many will pay?), I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t just add their phone number to a site. I guess this investment is just another example of the bigger fool theory with the VoIP industry.
[...] Jaxtr has just announced that they've raised a $10 million A round, and the critics are having a field day. Why? The key word is free. Jaxtr combines some of the services of Grand Central with a free long distance model, transports the calls using VoIP, and terminates the calls on the old fashioned telephone network. Ouch! Their wholesale costs may be cheaper than AT&T, but Jaxtr ain't free to operate! [...]