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WebMessenger
“How we found, invested in, built and sold two and a half times the same company between 1993 and 2012"
Val Babajov Founder & Managing Partner, VoiVoda
Ventures
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Val Babajov:
Serial Entrepreneur
Angel Investor
Three decades of software development and business management experience
Member of Five Angel Groups
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Val Babajov:
Self-made Man: immigrated to the US in 1989 with only $100 in his pocket
Strong Value System: Word as important as Paper
Personal Drive to Succeed
“Entrepreneurs can accomplish anything when they put their mind to it.”
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Founder and Managing Director of VoiVoda Ventures:
Early stage investment fund focused on B2B software technology startups
16 portfolio companies (9 in 2012 and 2 in 2013) and 5 successful exits, 2 of which in 2012
Invested in 3 Startups with Bulgarian founders – Xform Computing, Vertigo, LeanPlum
Identifies top startups from around the world and assists in transferring their IP and raising their first major round of funding in California
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The foundations of what will become Webmessenger are established
Engineering offices in six countries
IP in medical software, digital media, mobile software and communication
Wide range of clients including large corporations and startups
Dotcom Boom
2001
1993
Award winning mobile instant messaging product company
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WebMessenger
Founded in 1993 in the garage in Los Angeles, later expansion to New
York, Toronto, Bucharest, Sofia
1993 First product: Fax-to-Fax Internet Solution
1996 Custom software development for medical electronic companies
1998-2000 EarJam, Internet Media Player and Portal
2000 Enterprise Mobile Instant Messaging & Presence Platform
Global Partners and Clients including IBM, Nokia, Blackberry, Leman
Brothers
Seamless 24/7 global engineering and programming operation
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Dotcom Crash
Pivot: business to enterprise level unified mobile instant messaging
Acquisition by Apptix (OSE: APP)
2007
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Apptix stock crashes, Webmessenger division is mismanaged and neglected
2008
Val orchestrates a management buyout of the technology from Apptix for pennies on the dollar
2008
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Sold to CallWave / Fuzebox (NASDAQ: CALL) 6 weeks prior to 2008 financial collapse. At the time Lehman Brothers was a customer
2008
Fuzebox develops and promotes the platform ports it to iPhone and Google Android operating systems
Present
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2008 - Software development and services with focus on mobile applications
Offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, employing 37+ engineers in Sofia
Specialized teams for Telecommunications, Wireless Internet Communications,
Instant Messaging, Digital Media, VoIP, Quality Assurance
Rapid turn-around, quality software engineers, cost-effective solutions
Prominent Clients – AT&T, Verizon, Citibank, Google, IBM, Nokia, Genetech
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Established as a spin-off of WebMessenger with the employees not acquired by CallWave
Partners1993, Bulgarian operations acquired by BroadSoft (NASDAQ: BSFT)
Acquisition of the team due to their skills, expertise and knowledge, showcased in a project involving BroadSoft technology
2008 2012
Developed IP for a variety of companies ranging from Startups to Large Enterprises
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Powerful Virtual Computer in the “Cloud” that can be accessed from any Internet-capable device
The Bulgarian CEO, Kroum Antov approached Val.
Over the past 3 years, Val invested, mentored and helped syndicate the remaining financing for Xform
When costs of bandwidth and memory on the “cloud” went down, a powerful virtual computer hosted on the “cloud” became viable
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Large Development Offices in Bulgaria
More than $10M invested
More than 700 programmers employed
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5 Successful Exits
- Wireless climate monitoring and control system for agriculture
- Acquired by Rain Bird in December, 2012
- Award winning mobile instant messaging product company based in USA with large development office in Bulgaria
- Exit to Apptix Inc, 2007, reaquired by VoiVoda, 2008, and exit to CallWave Inc, 2008
- AppStore solution company offering a white label platform and a branded AppStore
- Exit to Opera Inc, 2008
- Software development and services company in Bulgaria focused on mobile applications
- Acquired for cash by Broadsoft in April, 2012
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Val Babajov Managing Partner
Email: [email protected]
Skype: val_skype
www.voivoda.com
Thank You!