Highland Capital Partners and MMC Ventures are joining Notion Capital and Eden Ventures as equity backers of cloud contact centre services business NewVoiceMedia.
Basingstoke-headquartered NewVoiceMedia will use its new £12.7 million investment to open offices in North America.
Existing backers Notion Capital and Eden Ventures are contributing alongside the two new venture capital firms.
NewVoiceMedia’s platform, ContactWorld, provides customers with what it describes as a ‘fast, flexible and cost effective’ access to contact centre capabilities. According to a statement, the business is planning to grow by more than 200 per cent a year and it now serves 8000 agents in 30 countries.
The £12.7 million allocation follows two previous rounds worth £4 million in 2010 and £2.5 million in 2011.
The cloud company’s CEO Jonathan Gale, comments, ‘The contact centre market has lacked innovation from traditional on-premise vendors for many years.
‘This investment will allow us to continue to innovate ahead of our competition and expand our service globally.’
New backer Highland Capital Partners Europe is a growth equity technology fund with portfolio companies including Avid Technology, eToys and MapQuest. Laurence Garrett, a general partner at the firm, is joining NewVoiceMedia’s board.
‘We are working with a seasoned entrepreneurial team led by a great leader in Jonathan Gale,’ Garrett says.
‘Eden and Notion Capital are great investors who continue to support the company strongly.’
The deal for MMC Ventures is its first investment since it provided follow on funding to house exchange business Love Home Swap in November. The £800,000 secured was then used by Love Home Swap to acquire 1stHomeExchange, its maiden acquisition, earlier this month.
Rory Stirling, director of MMC Ventures, adds, ‘Having experienced fourfold growth between Q1 2011 and 2012, [NewVoiceMedia] is creating a real success story with its world-leading contact centre service.
‘MMC focuses on backing businesses that can succeed on a global scale and we think that NewVoiceMedia fits this criteria very well.’
