BBC News- Last.fm, Bebo and now SpinVox – three British technology companies (or at least with some British roots) which have made big money for their founders over the last year. But here’s the difference – while the founders of Bebo and last.fm have sold up to giant American businesses, Spinvox is still independent and its owners are not yet cashing in their chips.
Spinvox is built on one very simple (and some might say niche) idea – turning voice into text. It started with a service which listens to your voicemails and sends them to you as texts and emails – and is now branching out into areas like allowing you to "speak" new blog postings. Not sure I’m ready for that kind of stream of consciousness…..
Anyway, this idea has apparently caught on with a number of mobile operators around the world, and Spinvox has now attracted big funding from some very big names. Goldman Sachs, perhaps the ritziest of the investment banks, and GLG, a big European hedge fund, are among the investors who have put $100 million into the business, at a valuation of $500 million.
