LiteScape Technologies Receives $14 Million in Series B Funding

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LiteScape Technologies, Inc. (www.litescape.com), a leading developer of Unified Communications applications, today announced that it had secured approximately $14 million in Series B funding. The funding round was led by new investor Vedanta Capital and also included strategic funding from T-Systems Venture Fund, managed by T-Venture, the corporate venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom. LiteScape’s existing investors — SoftBank Capital, TeleSoft Partners, and Blumberg Capital — also participated in the round. In addition, former AT&T executive and co-founder of Vedanta Capital, Alessandro Piol, has joined LiteScape’s Board of Directors.

“We carefully examined the players in the emerging Unified Communications industry, and LiteScape was a clear front runner,” says Alessandro Piol of Vedanta Capital. “Their solutions have been deployed by numerous large companies already and their technology is ahead of industry giants who are just beginning to turn their attention to this rapidly growing market space.”

LiteScape’s flagship product, OnCast, makes the future of unified communications a reality today, allowing organizations to harness the power of complete communications — voice, conferencing, broadcasting, collaboration — across the applications and communications devices they use on a daily basis. OnCast bridges the gap between corporate data, collaboration tools, desktop PCs, and IP phones to create a seamless communications experience. Tearing down communications barriers, OnCast effectively eliminates the divide between IP phones, PCs and mobile devices.

“After thorough due diligence of the Unified Communications market, we identified LiteScape as a leader in this space,” said Sebastian Blum of T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom. “We have confidence in the solutions, the management team, and the overall ability of the company to help transform the way organizations communicate and use unified communications applications to optimize business processes.”

OnCast has been deployed globally by multi-national organizations to drive productivity, reduce costs, optimize traditional business processes, and increase corporate security. OnCast presently integrates IP telephony systems with business applications from leading vendors including Cisco, WebEx, Asterisk, Avaya, IBM/Lotus, Microsoft, Polycom and Salesforce.com.

“With more organizations deploying IP telephony and demanding Unified Communications applications everyday, LiteScape is well positioned to capitalize on the growth of this market by providing a powerful software solution that dramatically helps companies increase productivity,” said Farzad Naimi, Chairman and CEO of LiteScape Technologies. “We are pleased by the new support of Vedanta Capital and T-Systems Venture Fund and the continued confidence of our existing investors. LiteScape’s solutions are already helping many organizations around the world optimize their business processes and streamline communications. With this new funding, we will extend our reach to even more customers, continue to grow our solutions portfolio, and build the necessary corporate infrastructure to support a global business.”

About Vedanta Capital

Vedanta Capital is a venture capital firm formed in 2006, which currently manages $600M in total commitments. The firm was formed by industry veterans who have been investing in technology, health care and consumer-oriented opportunities since the 1980s. Vedanta looks for technology-based products and services that leverage, enhance or complement network infrastructure; innovative medical technologies and compounds; and disruptive business or consumer services. The firm's industry network in Asia and Europe helps create opportunities and add value to its portfolio companies.

About T-Systems Venture Fund

T-Systems Venture Fund was established in 2004 and is equipped with an investment volume of EUR 50 million. It is managed by T-Venture, the venture capital entity of Deutsche Telekom. Its aim is to support T-Systems, the business customer brand of Deutsche Telekom in its objectives. For additional information about T-Venture and the T-Systems Venture Fund please visit www.t-venture.de.

About TeleSoft Partners

TeleSoft Partners is a venture capital firm focused on next generation communications and information technology companies. TeleSoft manages capital commitments of $625+ million and focuses on systems, software and components. Over the last decade, TeleSoft and its principals have funded and helped build 50+ portfolio companies resulting in 20+ acquisitions and IPOs. Example portfolio companies include Bombay Cellular (acquired by Hutchison), Catamaran (acquired by Infineon), Cerent (acquired by Cisco), Internet Photonics (acquired by Ciena), iWitness (acquired by Zantaz), Kymata (acquired by Alcatel), Lara (acquired by Cypress), Promatory (acquired by Nortel), VxTel (acquired by Intel), as well as the following companies which have had initial public offerings: Omnipoint, OSI, Provide Commerce, and SigmaTel. TeleSoft's Corporate Partners include ALLTEL and Bechtel in the US, Deutsche Telekom in Europe and Comverse in Israel. For more information, visit www.telesoftvc.com.

About SOFTBANK Capital

SOFTBANK Capital is the U.S.-based venture capital group associated with SOFTBANK Corporation, which focuses on private equity investments in technology-related companies. To date, SOFTBANK Capital has made numerous investments in e-commerce, software, financial services, communications, and digital media and marketing companies including Yahoo!, E*Trade, LRN, NLG, UTStarcom, GeoCities, Danger, and GSI Commerce. SOFTBANK Capital is currently investing through SOFTBANK Capital Technology Fund III L.P., which focuses on investing in U.S. technology companies taking advantage of the significant ongoing development and deployment of broadband and the resulting fundamental business and operational changes occurring across most industry sectors. For more information, visit www.softbank.com.

About Blumberg Capital

Blumberg Capital is a San Francisco-based, classic, early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in emerging information technology companies in the fields of security, software, infrastructure and technology enabled services. Founded in 1991, the fund is focused on information technology solutions that enhance productivity, reduce costs and minimize threats for enterprise customers. Visit Blumberg's website at www.blumbergcapital.com.

About LiteScape Technologies

LiteScape Technologies is a leading software developer of Unified Communications applications. By securely integrating an organization's business applications with its IP communications infrastructure, LiteScape solutions increase productivity and optimize business processes. LiteScape allows users to access and utilize pertinent corporate information in real time on any IP device, including desktop computers, IP telephones and mobile devices. Founded in 2004, the company is privately held and based in Redwood Shores, CA. For additional information, please visit www.litescape.com or email info@litescape.com.