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May 15, 2007

Jott Networks just announced it closed its first funding round of $5.4 million.

Jott Networks offers free speech-to-text services to mobile users.

Bain Capital Ventures led the investment round, with Draper Richards, Ackerley Partners and Atomico Investments also participating.

Ajay Agarwal, managing director at Bain Capital Ventures said “overall, we see a lot of mobile startups that require complicated software downloads, work on a limited number of handsets and provide marginal value to the consumer."

Agarwal added "what attracted us to Jott is that their service is simple, valuable, and accessible to hundreds of millions of people today.”

Jott users dial a toll-free number from a mobile phone and leave a voice message up to 15 seconds long that is then transcribed and delivered to a computer or cellphone via text message or email.

The offering, which is free and in public testing, also includes a “JottCast” feature, a “one-to-many” service that allows users to create groups of friends and colleagues and send a single message to each member.

The Seattle-based firm was founded by John Pollard and fellow former Microsoft executive Shreedhar Madhavapeddi in 2006.

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Source: Wireless Week