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.

VC firms — those not cleaned out by the dot.bomb crash of 2000-2001 and the Great Recession — will be looking to invest in security companies in forthcoming funds.  What with all the data breeches, stolen credit cards, and cyberwar battles across Eastern Europe over the past three years, better tools and systems are needed for such initiatives such as online health care and banking.

However, there won’t be massive hordes of firms looking to hand out money to anyone with a PowerPoint and a good idea.  There will be fewer funds (see: Great Recession of 20xx) and the (mostly old-money) survivors are back to fundamentals of business plans, profitability, and investment horizons of 5 to 7 years.