On Twitter, @danyork is crowing about Voxeo securing $9 million in venture funding. The trend is representative of the wider loosening of cash in the telecommunications sector and the investment community for both M&A and investment. On a meta scale, the recession “winter” of 2008-2009 is over, but we should be careful of being complacent.
Orlando, Florida-based Voxeo got “a minority investment” (didn’t have to give up 51 percent of the company) from North Atlantic Capital and the Florida Growth Fund. North Atlantic Capital is a VC firm that invests in “late stage” (i.e. we’re looking at an exit real soon) SaaS and other technology business services; it also intro’d Voxeo and the Florida Growth fund.
Florida Growth Fund is a $250 million partnership between the State Board of Administration of Florida and private equity asset manager Hamilton Lane; the Florida Growth Fund is a state fund created in 2009 and designed to invest in technology and growth-based companies in… yes, the state of Florida. Hamilton Lane is a leading private equality asset management firm with over $88 billion under management and supervision.
Employee-0wned Voxeo has grown revenues 1,361 percent over the last five years and has a bunch of cool products for IVR and self-service voice platforms, a voice objects application server, microVoIP platforms, and “IMifed” technology that no doubt shows up in all the Twitter-ing @DanYork does.
Combine with the onslaught of M&A activity this week (HP buying 3Com, Google buying Gizmo5 and some other web shop this week), we should expect to see more M&A and VC deals to take place over the next three to six months. Money is flowing, but be clear as to why — Low-interest rates mean dollars are chasing better returns in M&A activity and the private investment world. Assuming Wall Street keeps its happy face, we should see at least a couple of IP communications companies (see “late stage” above) dip their toe into the IPO market if the weather continues to be good.
However, the macro-economist wonks have sounded a cautionary note that money may be *too* cheap given current interest rates — seriously, with the bank down the street offering interest of 1.83 percent on a two year CD, putting cash into buying up a company or putting it into a VC fund makes a whole lotta sense. If too much capital goes into “risky” investments rather than more conservative ones, well, it would be a Bad Thing for continued growth.
