One thing’s for sure - the cream rises to the top in a downturn. And San Francisco/Israel based iSkoot, which has built technology that lets mobile users access Skype via normal mobile handsets, look like it’s the cream. The company has raised a third round of financing - $19 million from new investor Vision Opportunity Master Fund. Existing investors Charles River Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Jesselson Capital Corporation and ZG Ventures also participated in the round. Total capital raised by iSkoot is now over $32 million.
iSkoot is best known to U.S. consumers as the company that brought Skype to the Android phone. But their core business to date has been to build technology that lets people use Skype on their mobile handsets in a way that doesn’t threaten carriers and doesn’t overwhelm the handset’s hardware.
iSkoot moves the heavy processing to servers that they or the carrier controls. When a user wants to make a Skype call or chat, they use a thin client on the phone that appears to work the same way as it would on a normal computer. But iSkoot then makes a normal voice call to their servers, and transmits the Skype data over the Internet from there. The result is a great user experience, and the carriers rack up those valuable minutes.
They currently work with the carrier Hutch in eight countries. 300,000 mobile handsets have been purchased that include the iSkoot software and service in Europe and Asia.
The company is now expanding into other businesses that can benefit from their technology, pairing, effectively, a web service with a synchronous communication client. Look for new product rollouts based on their existing technology, plus what they picked up when they acquired Social.im earlier this year.
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iGetMoreCreative
iBelongsToApple
iSoundsLikeACopOut
great logo…
I think it’s weird that there isn’t a figure on the scooter. It’s moving but nobody’s driving!
“But iSkoot then makes a normal voice call to their servers, and transmits the Skype data over the Internet from there.” This has got to be one of the worst business ideas I’ve ever heard of. Why would I want to load a special application on my phone to make phone calls that cost the same as, yes, simply dialing the phone?!? Might be useful if you’re making international calls, but not for any one else. Cream of the crop? Hardly.
That’s exactly what it’s for: international calls via Skype Out and calls to your Skype buddies. Which other way would you call a Skype contact from your cell phone?
Seems like these VCs are still putting money into dumb businesses. They deserve to lose money
why Skoot?
because you’re mobile
I’d like to thank whoever fixed TechCrunch and QA’d Android for posting comments here.
Erick Schonfeld is on my Gtalk list, and I noticed that he too uses Android, and has the little Android icon next to his name when he’s online.
iSkoot works surprisingly well, and is useful for national as well as international calls.
Here in the UK, mobile network “3″ (part of Hutchison Whampoa) include a Skype client based on iSkoot on most of their higher-end phones.
They don’t charge for Skype calls - so you can call another person in the same country or abroad (Skype to Skype) for free. Calling international landlines through SkypeOut is possible and you only pay for the international part of the call with your Skype credit or subscription. The intial part of the call routed over their voice network via GSM is free.
It works well for me.
For those who don’t get the advantage of iSkoot: it uses the Internet to route calls between iSkoot gateway. You and your connecting party connect to these gateways via voice protocol.
What this means is international calling is charged at local mobile rates. While it isn’t any different than using those International calling cards, iSkoot still will be in my opinion easier to use.
kashif
great
http://vidsonly.blogspot.com
Congrats Mark Jacobstein
Um, I have to agree with -S-
I **USED** to use this application on my BB about 18 months ago/2 yrs ago - and it was good….
But now - UNFORTUNATELY… Skype did their own - which does EXACTLY what iSkoot does…
See link here:
http://www.skype.com/intl/en/d.....pe/mobile/
Its very clear that Charles River Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Jesselson Capital Corporation and ZG Ventures will do their combined $32 million on this one.
What were they thinking? What the hell were they thinking? $32 million dollars??? Did they think that Skype would NEVER EVER create a mobile client?
Charles River Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Jesselson Capital Corporation and ZG Ventures all deserve to loose this investment.
Losers.