BBC News- Last.fm, Bebo and now SpinVox – three British technology companies (or at least with some British roots) which have made big money for their founders over the last year. But here’s the difference – while the founders of Bebo and last.fm have sold up to giant American businesses, Spinvox is still independent and its owners are not yet cashing in their chips.<\/p>\n
Spinvox is built on one very simple (and some might say niche) idea – turning voice into text. It started with a service which listens to your voicemails and sends them to you as texts and emails – and is now branching out into areas like allowing you to "speak" new blog postings. Not sure I’m ready for that kind of stream of consciousness…..<\/p>\n
Anyway, this idea has apparently caught on with a number of mobile operators around the world, and Spinvox has now attracted big funding from some very big names. Goldman Sachs, perhaps the ritziest of the investment banks, and GLG, a big European hedge fund, are among the investors who have put $100 million into the business, at a valuation of $500 million.<\/p>\n