WebRTC Expert Feature

May 19, 2015

Using WebRTC, Switch Closes $35 Million Funding Round


WebRTC based UC cloud provider Switch announced it is closing a $35 million C funding round today. Switch is known as the company making the Switch communications product for Google Apps and UberConference conferencing service. Talking to Craig Walker, Switch CEO, the company is going to use the new funding to grow the market, add more UC functionality, and move beyond the Google App environment.

The funding round was led by Amasia, an investment fund with significant funding from Asian carriers focused on cross-pacific ventures. The round included other new investors in Softbank, Filicis Ventures, and Work-Bench. Earlier investors Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures also participated in this round. Including the $18 million in the earlier two rounds, this brings the total funding for Switch to $53 million.

Image via Shutterstock

Craig indicated that, looking forward, he is focused on “building out Switch as a full UC platform” and “moving beyond Google”. As Switch just came out of Beta in January, it is still in its early days, but Craig says recent success and a yet-to-be-announced, major enterprise sales win shows that Switch is on the path to be a potential UCaaS competitor. I also ran into him at the Microsoft Ignite conference a couple of weeks ago, clearly showing that the Switch team is focused on how to compete and coexist with Microsoft. It will be interesting to see how the company accelerates with a Web programming based platform and with the addition of new capabilities and services. As Switch is completely WebRTC based, this is yet another demonstration of the power of WebRTC to enable differentiated offers in the marketplace.

I expect we’ll be hearing more about Switch, both inside the Google Applications Ecosystem, and as a more general UC cloud provider. The investment also demonstrates that a group of savvy investors believe there is room for innovation and profitable market share growth in the enterprise communications market, even after Skype for Business rolled out last week. In the end, it is clear that there is investment funding for WebRTC based applications and services if the team and model are right.




Edited by Dominick Sorrentino
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