Vivox Gets $7.8M in Series B

Vivox, a voice provider for virtual worlds and online games, has received $7.8 million in Series B financing led by Benchmark Capital with support from existing partners Canaan Partners and GrandBanks Capital.  "The proliferation of virtual worlds and online games has created a tremendous opportunity for the Vivox communications platform,” said Mitch Lasky, general partner of Benchmark Capital and newly appointed Vivox board member. “Voice is a transformative feature in games, creating an entirely new level of engagement and social connection among players. Vivox is uniquely positioned to deliver scalable, carrier-grade voice services through its industry-leading technologies and expertise."

The funding will go toward product development, sales support and marketing.

"We continue to invest in digital media companies that are changing the way people work and live,” said Warren Lee, Vivox board member and principal at Canaan Partners. "We’re thrilled to invest again in Vivox and believe the company is poised for tremendous growth in the rapidly expanding gaming and virtual world market."

This year Vivox partnered with Linden Lab to provide voice support for Second Life. It's not entirely clear how that will fit in with Linden's plans to open source the client for Second Life, but Vivox has maintained an interest in working with the open source community. In June Vivox integrated with Icarus to bring five new clients to the two companies.

Other customers and partners include 1GPN, Inc., Alpha Innovation, BigWorld Technology, CCP Games, The Electric Sheep Company, FWD International, IBM, Illusion Factory, K2 Network, LanguageLab.com, Monumental Games, Pixel Mine and Wizards of the Coast