Communications as a Service (CaaS) Provider Agora Receives $20 Million in Series B Funding

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Sep 15, 2015, 01:15 ET

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Agora, Inc., a communications as a service (CaaS) provider enabling enterprises to add premium real-time communications for any application through a simple, powerful SDK, today announced the company received $20 Million in Series B funding from venture capital firms Morningside, SIG, GGV Capital, ShunWei, and IDG, bringing its total funding to $25.9 Million. Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, Agora will use the funds to further expand its global infrastructure and sales and marketing initiatives.

Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) is transforming many industries, including financial services, healthcare, education, and customer service, by enabling mobile and web users to make voice calls, video chats, share screens, and exchange files.

Agora today announced global availability of Agora Voice that goes beyond current WebRTC services by providing consistent quality of experience (QoE) on a global scale as an easy-to-use and cost-effective cloud service. Today's real-time communications users require access to application-to-application services that provide superior QoE across any network to which they are connected, especially global mobile networks.

Agora uses a globally distributed cloud infrastructure and advanced algorithms to preserve premium communications quality across mobile and other devices and varying network conditions. Agora's 65 global data centers and HD audio codecs minimize latency for real-time communications, managing background noise and up to 70% packet loss, while supporting as many as 2,000 users in a single session. Agora's simple, powerful SDK integrates easily with any application supporting iOS, Android, and Windows PC, with a JavaScript SDK coming soon. Unique to the marketplace, Agora Voice provides its partners with Service Level Agreements, guaranteeing every user will enjoy premium real-time quality of experience.

"Agora is offering a unique solution to deliver premium communications to the global marketplace," says Jenny Lee, managing partner for GGV Capital. "They have assembled an impressive team with voice and video experience to revolutionize how the world communicates," Lee adds.

"We are pleased that our original investors continue to support Agora with a substantial Series B round of venture capital funding," says Tony Zhao, CEO and founder of Agora. "Agora meets the needs of tomorrow's applications to deliver richer communications between people around the world from their mobile devices," Zhao adds.

Agora is co-sponsoring the Real Time Web Solutions Conference (webrtcexpo.com/china) in Beijing, China on November 10-11, 2015, which is being run by TMC, the leader in WebRTC and other technical communications and technology conferences and media. This will be the first WebRTC-focused event for the important Chinese marketplace.

Agora recently announced the company established its new corporate headquarters in Palo Alto, CA to work more closely with its U.S.-based partners and dedicate more resources to tap into the fast-growing VoIP and real-time communications markets in North America.

About Agora, Inc.

Privately held and founded in 2014, Agora, Inc. is a communications as a service (CaaS) provider delivering premium quality-of-experience voice and video communications across devices and networks globally. Agora enables software applications to support as many as 2,000 users on a single call. Agora customers provide HD real-time communication services to organizations in the following industries: financial services, education, telemedicine, human resources, customer service, and social media applications. Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, Agora is backed by venture capital firms Morningside, SIG, GGV Capital, ShunWei, and IDG. For more information visit http://www.agora.io.

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SOURCE Agora, Inc.