Seattle wireless veterans Dennis Weibling and John Chapple (pictured) are among the investors in the $15 million financing round of Telesphere, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company that is providing a unified communications service to small and medium sized businesses. In addition to Weibling's Rally Capital and Chapple's Hawkeye Investments, Henderson, Nevada-based Greenspun Corp. also is participating in the deal.
Interestingly, Telesphere sounds like another high-profile startup that formed here a few years ago: Sotto Wireless. That company -- led by former AT&T Wireless CTO Rod Nelson and backed by Ignition Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners -- pulled the plug on the service in March.
Telesphere, which offers hosted voice and Internet service to businesses in 40 states, has other ties to the Seattle area. Its CEO,Clark Peterson, was one of the earliest employees at Clearwire. He served as the former president of major market operations for the Kirkland broadband wireless company.
Peterson also worked at McCaw Cellular, where Chapple served as an executive from 1988 to 1995.
Weibling -- who previously led the McCaw investment fund Eagle River -- obviously thinks Telesphere is on a different path.
“We believe there are a number of ways to grow this business -- both organically and through acquisition -- and view Telesphere’s compelling services that are cost competitive, simple to understand, and rich in features as “must have” communications solutions for many businesses across America," he said in a statement.
Telesphere has more than tripled its workforce in the past 18 months to 120 employees, with The Arizona Republic reporting that the company's revenue grew by about 60 percent last year.
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