FuzeBox takes on $20m Series A, to remove the pain from virtual meetings

FuzeBox, a company that provides virtual meeting solutions along with mobile tools to allow for meeting to take place wherever they may, has raised a $20 million Series A round. The funding was led by Index Ventures, and was participated in by Khosla Ventures and Insight Ventures.

Virtual meetings are a real pain. Everyone knows it. The joke is that the first words of any Skype call aren’t ‘hello,’ or ‘how are you,’ but ‘can you hear me,’ and ‘wait, hold on.’ That lag is not a passing concern. As the need for physical presence in meetings declines, the need for flexible digital solutions has risen. That is the market that FuzeBox targets.

According to FuzeBox’s release, the company “give[s] users total freedom from locations, varying networks,and low-resolution screen sharing solutions.” Here is the FuzeBox pitch: digital meetings wherever you are, on whatever device you are on.

Pricing for FuzeBox’s ‘Meeting’ service ranges from $15 a month, to $69, and into the enterprise range, the cost of which isn’t publicly listed. However, how the company plans to make money is hardly hidden – SaaS is a proven model at this point.

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Reading through the company’s public copy concerning its funding, and it’s more than amply apparent that its mobile strategy is the keystone of its product; mobile is how it intends to stand out. Given the rise of smartphones and tablets, that strategy isn’t hard to understand. However, I wonder how often meetings are accessed from mobile environments, such as trains and taxis. Is there enough demand for such a solution?

It’s investors think so. If its enterprise offering can bring in large checks, FuzeBox could truly be onto something. People are more on the go than ever, and still need to communicate. How the company will compete with Skype, WebEx, and others will apparently rest on its mobile tools. Time will show how accurate that bet is.

Top Image Credit: Voka Kamer van Koophandel Limburg