Vobi.com has successfully raised $1.5 million in Series A funding thanks to Dallas-based VC Trailblazer Capital. The startup is head quartered in Austin and creates a collaboration tool that it wants to sell directly through wireless operators. Vobi CEO Mark Castleman is content with VC Trailblazer Capital as the main investor in his firm because of their specialization in communications startup that own unique intellectual property.
Castleman is no new comer to the field of communication and collaboration. His most recent project was PBX Central, a startup he founded to offer PBX-as-a-service. Once he moved to the board of that company he joined Vobi as it came out of stealth mode.
Vobi plans to give its customers the chance to collaborate using a platform that lets them share files, media, and work on projects. This may sound like an online file storage service but is not because access to the Vobi dashboard is based on a user’s phone number. The platform only connects the user to the services they need to collaborate remotely.
What this means is that a user does not need to instruct others on how to view files or open documents. All they do is enter their phone number on Vobi.com which will create a room for all parties to collaborate. The idea sounds simple but the technology that drives is far from it. Castleman says that, “We’re big believers in mobile phone numbers being the key identity element. It’s globally unique. My phone number in France is accessible, but my social security number in France means nothing.”
Vobi will use the user’s phone number as a base from which it will then connect the subscriber’s mobile number to email, cloud services and social networks. The Vobi CEO explains that, “Our enterprise use case is that you have a workspace – your tablet, desktop or laptop – and your voice interface is your phone. Meanwhile, you’ve shared content with [your call recipients] like your Box, or Dropbox, or Salesforce, and emails. When you make that call, on your Vobi screen on your laptop or computer, you get an activity stream that shows you all the content that you’ve shared, and you have a collaboration panel.”
He also adds that, “We reconstitute the workspace in that environment to show you what your last interaction looked like, as well as any asynchronous shares you’ve done through Box, etc.”
For Vobi to acutally work it will need a telecommunications carrier as a partner. Castleman says that, “Through the carriers, like a switch, it’s turned on. And once it’s turned on, it’s like electricity. Now the applications are like the various things you plug into it. That’s a great model for the service providers, too, because they’re used to it and because they know how to sell features.”
This means that the service will get a space on the the carriers app store along with Apple’s App Store and the Google App Store.
Castleman concludes by saying that, “The carrier world is a slow-moving world, but once things get baked into that world, they have the ability to have an enormous impact. When you embrace them, you can really do some cool stuff because – let’s face it – everyone is their customer.”
Source: TechCrunch
REPORT: Google Stopping Windows Phone Users From Accessing Google Maps
U.S. Federal Trade Commision Completes Investigation Of Google, Finds Nothing Suspect
Lunches So Good Kids Can’t Ignore Them
Invigorating Ginger Smoothie
The U.K.’s Youngest Parents Ever
The new hair Jennifer Lawrence