SunRocket, a residential Voice over Internet Protocol
The announcement comes as the telecom and venture capital communities buzz over two potentially huge payoffs in the VoIP space: eBay’s $2.6 billion acquisition of Skype and Vonage’s planned IPO.
Mayfield Fund led the round. Doll Capital Management and existing investors BlueRun Ventures and Anthem Capital Management also participated.
“SunRocket has the perfect combination of talent and technology to capitalize on the enormous growth and disruptive power of Internet-enabled communications,? Janice Roberts, Mayfield Fund managing director, said in a statement.
To date, SunRocket has raised $34 million in venture financing, a figure it says is second (albeit by quite a margin) only to Vonage in the consumer VoIP space.
Brian Lustig, a SunRocket spokesman, said the money will be used to expand the Vienna, Va.-based company’s footprint.
“SunRocket service covers about 70 percent of broadband-enabled homes and the company anticipates covering more than 85 percent by the end of the year,” said Brian Lustig, a SunRocket spokesman.
In addition to expansion, SunRocket will also boost sales and marketing activities and increase research and development with an eye toward new features.
SunRocket charges a $199 annual flat fee (including taxes) for its local and long-distance services. The privately held company has more than 35,000 customers and hopes to lure more customers away from the Baby Bells with cheaper prices and new features.
For example, the company recently enabled seven-digit dialing for calls within the same area code. Many regional phone calls now require users to dial the area code because they are running out of numbers to assign.