FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions that control greynets and manage unified communications in the enterprise, today announced it has received $15.6 million in new investment capital that is expected to fund the company through profitability.
The investment was led by the Credit Suisse NEXT II Fund, with all existing investors, Sutter Hill Ventures, JK&B Capital and Scale Venture Partners, also participating.
FaceTime had intended to raise approximately $10 million to fund its long- term strategic plan to profitability. However, demand from investors drove the higher investment amount.
"This investment is a strong validation of both the growing opportunity for unified communications and FaceTime's leadership position in the market,"
said Kailash Ambwani, president and CEO of FaceTime. "As businesses have adopted unified communications through both consumer and enterprise applications, FaceTime's strategy of delivering the most comprehensive security and compliance platform has resulted in accelerated growth."
FaceTime's market position has been validated by leading information technology market research and advisory firm IDC, which recently named FaceTime the market share leader among instant messaging management vendors for the fourth consecutive year. The ranking was announced in IDC's recent report, "Worldwide Enterprise Instant Messaging Applications and Management Products 2006 Vendor Shares: IM and Presence Are Ready for Broader Collaboration" (IDC #208000, August 2007).
FaceTime will use this investment to expand and accelerate its market strategy. As a first step in its market expansion, the company today also announced its Unified Security Gateway (USG). From a single platform, USG integrates management, security and compliance of Web usage; greynet applications such as public IM, Skype and P2P; and enterprise-class unified communication platforms such as Microsoft's Office Communications Server and IBM Lotus Sametime.
Steve Yatko, managing director and head of global information technology research and development for Credit Suisse, said, "Clearly Internet applications are going through a radical transformation, and we believe FaceTime represents a comprehensive and compelling vision for unified communications management and security. We have been familiar for several years with FaceTime's team, solutions and commitment to providing comprehensive security and compliance for organizations that are enabling safe and secure Web and real-time communications on their enterprise networks." He went on to say, "We are convinced that information technology decision makers throughout the world increasingly will rely on FaceTime to provide comprehensive security, management and compliance for their Web and real-time Internet communications."