YouMail, a company that provides free cell phone voicemail service, raised $4.5 million from VantagePoint Venture Partners. VantagePoint is a Firm that invests in entrepreneurial companies at all stages of development in the CleanTech, HealthCare and Information Technology sectors. Craig Cooper, a venture partner at VantagePoint, will join the YouMail Board of Directors. Mr. Cooper is a co-founder of Boost Mobile. I’m sure he’s on the Board to make sure YouMail spends the $4.5 million wisely.
YouMail is a free cell phone voicemail service that allows users to better express themselves by personalizing their voicemail. YouMail customers can setup different greetings based on caller id, record self-generated greetings, or choose greetings and away messages from a library of user-generated material. Instead of having the same old greeting for every call, this service allows a person to craft greetings and away messages based on the person calling. You don’t want your boss to hear the same greeting that your give your super-hot new boyfriend or girlfriend. YouMail also allows users to access their cell phone voicemail over the web or in their e-mail, share special voicemails, and save them.
“Over the past few months, YouMail has been rolling out and steadily improving its innovative free cellphone voicemail service, and we look forward to working with VantagePoint to grow our business and expand our presence in the market,” said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. “We selected VantagePoint as our partner because of the firm’s deep expertise and success in helping launch and grow some of the hottest new mobile companies in the market today.”
Craig Cooper brings the YouMail Board of Directors over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. Besides being a co-founder of Boost Mobile, Mr. Cooper was a partner at Softbank Capital where he led the West Coast Digital Media and Wireless Investment Group.
“YouMail has undoubtedly developed one of the most compelling mobile services that we’ve seen in some time. Because the company’s offerings are free, easy to learn, fun to use, and increase productivity, it will considerably shake up the existing category,” said Cooper. “We are excited to be investors in a company with such an innovative and global vision for the future of the mobile experience.”