Wow.

The dollars are continuing to flow into the mobile VoIP space.

Today, Mobile VoIP service provider Nimbuzz has raised a $15 million second round of funding lead by Naspers/MIH and Mangrove Capital Partners. In 2007, Nimbuzz raised a $10 million first round of founding lead by Mangrove. According to Nimbuzz Founder and CEO Evert Jaap Lugt,

“We are actively working on strategic distribution deals with leading social networks and mobile operators. It is our aim to blend our technology with existing mobile internet access to upgrade the value chain for business and consumers alike. Operators understand the need for services like Nimbuzz which provide traffic and drive the demand for mobile data plans, an ever more important revenue stream.” 

And added that,

“We are well on the way to realising this aim with more than 1, 000,000 registered mobile users and more than 5,000 joining each day. The renewed commitment from our investors, coupled with our impressive growth, gives us important additional leverage in our discussions with both operators looking for ways to generate loyalty amongst consumers and social networks enabling free chat and voice communication within their community. The uptake of applications such as Nimbuzz is driving mobile internet traffic and in turn accelerating the demand for flat rate mobile data plans, a big win for consumers and network operators alike.” 

Obviously this is great news for the industry. However, from what Lugt said in the quotes above, it seems that Nimbuzz is focused on being the “platform” that social networks use to offer voice and chat services, rather than being heavily focused on a direct product. This is a vastly different strategy, the “providers provider” than what everyone else in the Mobile VoIP industry is doing.

What is also interesting is how Lugt suggested that Mobile VoIP is good for mobile operators because it drives data plan activations. Priceless. I wonder what the mobile operators think about that!