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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 13 April 2004
PalTalk Secures $6MM In Venture Funding from Softbank Capital Partners
Capital to be used for Business Expansion
New York – April 13, 2004 - PalTalk, a leading provider of live voice and video communications over the Internet has raised $6MM in financing from Softbank Capital Partners. PalTalk also announced that Mike Perlis, Managing Partner of Softbank Capital Partners, has joined the Board of Directors.
PalTalk enables many-to-many multimedia (text, voice and video) conferencing over the Internet for groups up to 1,000 people. The company has over 3 million active users and has been cash-flow positive for over 2 years. The management announced that the capital will be used to substantially expand PalTalk’s business – increase sales and marketing efforts, fund new product development initiatives, and support the company’s entrance into new markets.
"We are delighted to have venture capitalists of this caliber help us build the company," said Jason Katz, CEO and founder of PalTalk. "We plan to aggressively grow the company and the technology so we can continue to provide the best voice and video communications on the Internet."
"Softbank Capital Partners is pleased to be leading the financing of PalTalk’s latest round," said Mike Perlis, Managing Partner of Softbank Capital Partners. "PalTalk is a compelling investment because they have developed a market leading technology that enables any Internet user to have instant access to video conferencing. In addition, the company has a proven business model; this latest round of funding will enable them to continue growing the business and build upon their existing success"
About Softbank Capital Partners
SOFTBANK Capital Partners (SBCP) is a private equity group that focuses on
later-stage investments in technology based companies. SBCP’s fund
was launched in July 1999 and has made numerous investments in e-commerce,
software, financial services and digital media and marketing companies. SBCP
focuses on investments where dramatic growth and market leadership may be
achieved through its active involvement. The investment team leverages their
deep and diverse operating and investment experience as well as SOFTBANK’s
global network of operating companies, investments and other private equity
fund affiliations to help each portfolio company achieve success. We aggressively
manage the existing portfolio of investments as well as continually evaluate
new opportunities for investment
About PalTalk
PalTalk is a New York-based, privately held company that produces software
enabling voice conferencing (VOIP), video conferencing, instant messaging,
voice e-mail and video e-mail over the Internet. PalTalk was founded in June
of 1998 and was the first company to launch video and voice combined with
an on-line buddy list in one package. PalTalk also interoperates with AOL
Instant Messenger, Yahoo messenger and ICQ. PalTalk currently has 25 million
total registered users in over 140 countries and provides over 8 billion
voice minutes per year. PalTalk has relationships with IBM, AT&T, CyberTrader
(A Charles Schwab Company), DeltaThree, Doubleclick , Valueclick, and Advertising.com.