VoIP provider engin gets $4M war chest

Stuart Corner
Friday, 20 January 2006 04:02

Business IT - Technology

VoIP service provider, engin, has raised $4.1 million through a private placement of 29.5 million ordinary shares to institutions and "sophisticated" investors at $0.14 per share.

The company has also announced that the number of  paying subscribers lines grew 81 percent in the December quarter and now exceeds 19,000. It said that the funds raised would be used principally "to accelerate marketing efforts and product development with a view to significantly increasing the number of subscriber lines and revenue in 2006."

It has indicated plans to increase its focus on the SME market, which presently accounts for just under half its customer base. The company has been identified by Linksys as one of the first service providers to be developing services on its just launched SPA9000 IP PABX: a unit designed for the upmarket residential, soho and small SME customer that is likely to sell in Australia for less than $1000 for a fully featured four line unit upgradeable to 16 lines.

Engin claims a 40 percent share of the "residential and cost conscious SME" VoIP market in Australia. Its products and services are sold through a range of high street retailers and through 17 wholesale partners, including People Telecom which has over  45,000 SME customers.