China VCs back US communications start-up
A group of VC investors including Morningside Technologies, SIG, GGV Capital, Shunwei Capital Partners and IDG Capital Partners have invested in a $20 million Series B round of funding for Agora, a US-based communications-as-a-service provider.
Silicon Valley-headquartered Agora was founded in last year by Tony Zhao, former chief technology offer in US-listed Chinese social networking platform YY. Its flagship cloud technology product - Web Real-Time Communication - enables mobile and web users to make voice calls, video chats, share screens and exchange files.
The company has 65 global data centers and claims that its high definition audio codecs can minimize latency, background noise and packet loss for real-time communications. The technology can also support as many as 2,000 users in a single call.
Agora's target clients are companies operating in the financial services, education, human resources, customer services, and social media.
"Agora is offering a unique solution to deliver premium communications to the global marketplace," Jenny Lee, managing partner of GGV Capital, said in a statement. "They have assembled an impressive team with voice and video experience to revolutionize how the world communicates."
The start-up will use the funds to further expand its global technology infrastructure, as well as for sales and marketing initiatives.
YY went public in the US in 2012, having received funding from GGV, Steamboat Ventures, Morningside, and Tiger Global Management. The earliest investor was Lei Jun, founder of Shunwei and Chinese smart phone maker Xiaomi. In July, Lei and YY CEO David Li submitted a bid to take the company private.
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