Israel-based mobile VoIP startup Fring joins the layoff parade by letting 10 people, or around 20% of total staff, go. Company CEO Avi Shechter says the company is doing well, though, and the layoffs were to ensure that the company had enough capital to get them past 2009.
Shechter also says Fring has recently raised a third round of financing, but declines to specify the amount or investors yet. Fring had raised $13 million over two previous rounds of financing.
Fring recently inked a deal with a European mobile carrier, Mobilkom Austria, and says they’re seeing 400,000 new downloads and activations per month, up from 100,000/month a year ago. They’re also trying out advertisements in the service.
Best of luck to them, but 50 people for an im service is a fair bit no?
The company is still growing. So it is doing what is necessary for it to survive.
Btw, i’m intrigued…does techcrunch.com now push up recent popular posts to the top of the homepage? I’m sure this Fring post is more recent than the “twitter is news source” post…
Zee, sometimes we make certain posts “sticky,” which keeps them up top for a little while longer than normal. When it drops down it goes back to the original order.
i still can’t believe it’s not butter…
Very cool, just did some research – assume it’s this sticky plugin for wordpress…great idea.
I heard 70% and they still have no revenue model to speak of.
Good luck to all the VoIP startups going head to head with telecoms companies, they sure love cannibalizing their airtime.
The terms: “mother bear” and “cubs” spring to mind.
Fring is growing up well, but slowly. That’s why I’m testing Nimbuzz on my iPhone now.
I wonder if this cut will affect the developement.
Sad to hear it, but this is going on in practically every company in every industry, so it’s no surprise. I’m confident Fring has bright future.
One of the biggest killers of start-ups is too much capital. This is more apparent when recessionary pressures do not allow for unnecessary overhead. Companies need to focus on revenues, and not confuse venture capital as revenue. It is interesting that they make a statement referring to capital raised and not sustainable revenues or a focus to cash flow. I suspect the capital will run dry and the appetite for non-performing companies getting additional new capital will not be there at the end.
That’s why it’s called capital. Money wasted.
Avi,
Dude, how do ya think you will make money. The whole industry is struggling to do so. Companies like Jangl (went under), Jajah changed the business to be more of a carrier (the lowest in the food chain), Jaxtr is bleeding ona daily basis (feel sorry for folks at August Capital, Mayfield and others who sunk in close to $25M for a a clear revenue-less and business lacking model), iSkoot raised a lot of money and are losing a lot as well (another one that will go to the deadpool soon).
Where is the freakin business model?
Well said SG.
At the end of the day these guys are all telcos, unless they have a new app or a new rev model.
One of these guys needs to come up with something novel that is ad-supported. I think RH brands is doing a good job. How big that can get, who knows.
And no, I have nothing to do with RH Brands.
Fring rocks.
the fact is, more than 50% of the stuff is out (almost all developers are out),
the company struggle to survive.
if you want to see how fring soars above the sapce click on the following link from google trends and you will see why telcos and hand set manufacturers are courting the company , and how fast company get momentum.
http://www.goog...=all&sort=0
check out http://www.tabrio.com – great voice quality and 4 ways to initiate a call or send a text – with an ad supported business model and growing userbase.