Biba, a New Way to Communicate at Work, Debuts With $15M in Series B Funding

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 25, 2013) - Today, Biba Systems debuts Biba (https://www.biba.com/), a mobile-first business application that helps people get in touch instantly. Biba is a free, flexible, user-friendly tool that delivers conference calls and messaging across company boundaries and on multiple devices. Biba's mission is to remove friction and frustration so people can have better conversations, be more productive and be happier at work -- and in the process, disrupt three multi-billion-dollar markets: audio and web conferencing, enterprise instant messaging and unified communications.

Biba also announces a $15 million Series B funding round, led by InterWest Partners, with participation from previous investors Benchmark Capital and Trinity Ventures. Other investors include Enrique Salem, former CEO of Symantec and Gary Griffiths, CEO of Trapit and the former President of WebEx.

"Business communication is a complicated problem in need of an elegant solution that people love to use," said Carlin Wiegner, CEO and Co-founder, Biba. "We have completely re-imagined the problem to deliver an app that drastically improves communications at work."

Prior to founding Biba, Wiegner was the founding CEO of CubeTree, an enterprise social networking service acquired by SuccessFactors, now SAP. Previously Carlin held leadership positions at Symantec, Brightmail and Oblix.

"Carlin is singularly focused on improving the way people interact at work," said Kevin Harvey, a Founding Partner at Benchmark Capital and Board Director at Biba. "Carlin's unique perspective and product vision will enable him to lead business communications into completely new territory."

"It's about time a modern startup like Biba -- unencumbered by antiquated architectures and business models, powered by a seasoned team with a track record of success -- emerged to challenge the slow-moving Goliaths of business communications," said Bruce Cleveland, General Partner at InterWest Partners and Board Director at Biba. "Biba's bold vision to disrupt the communication industry may appear audacious but shows a keen understanding of what the incumbents are missing and responds to the demand that people and businesses need a far more cost-effective and substantially easier way to communicate with colleagues and partners."

Business communication is still awful after all these years
Existing business communication solutions are disparate, complex and expensive. The market is littered with products that don't seem to understand the way people work today.

Businesses and workers are more mobile and flexible. According to Paychex, a payroll and human resources firm, 85% of small business owners use smartphones to help manage their operations. Workers are driving adoption of people-friendly business tools from the bottom-up (BYO-App).

At the same time, increased global competition and a tough economy are forcing companies to be leaner and more flexible. People and teams are more distributed. The number of people who work remotely rose 73% from 2005 to 2011, says the Telework Research Network. Workers are always on the move, and many use their mobile phones as their primary phone -- even when they are at their desks. Yet current communications solutions require companies to invest millions in vestiges of the past: hardware, software and landlines. They force people to plan ahead and schedule in an era when conversations are becoming more spontaneous.

The future is all-in-one, flexible and user-friendly
The time is now for a new approach to business communications. Smartphones have become ubiquitous. There are now 1.5 billion smartphones in use throughout the world. Mobile networks are faster and more reliable. SaaS and "on demand" services have gone mainstream. Businesses are moving mission-critical services to the cloud. When it comes to business communications, you shouldn't have to juggle or struggle. Calls and messaging should be baked into one tool, and they should work on all your devices. This tool should be affordable, change to suit your company and be so seamless that people love to use it.

Biba: The Product
Biba makes it easy to get in touch with anyone, right now, no matter where they work or on what device. Highlights include:

• Conference Calls: No more fumbling with dial-ins and passcodes: Biba calls you. Biba gives you the power to know who is on the call and who's talking. You can mute the "noisy person," and if someone gets dropped, Biba automatically reconnects him.
  
  
• Biba Messaging: Need to reach someone but don't know where she is? Send one message and Biba will get it to her, whether she is on the road or at her desk. Know whether your message was sent, delivered or read. Chat with a group of people simultaneously in invite-only chat rooms.
  
  
• Biba Presence: Know when others are free, busy or when they will be available.
  

Pricing & Availability

• Personal: Individuals can get started right away by downloading Biba to their iPhone, iPad, Android or Mac for free.
  
  
• Team: Entire teams can join Biba for free. Administration tools for IT are also free.
  
  
• Pro: Add toll-free and international dialins for 2c per minute per caller.
  

About Biba
Biba is a free, mobile-first business app that helps you get in touch with people instantly. We solve basic communication problems that plague people every day. From conference calls to messaging, Biba is a seamless tool that works across companies and devices. Founded in 2011, Biba is funded by Benchmark Capital, InterWest Partners and Trinity Ventures. For more details and to download Biba, please visit https://www.biba.com/ or follow Biba on Twitter @Biba.