XConnect raises $10 million in Series B funding. A consortium of investors, including Venrock Associates, Accel Partners, Grazia Equity and Crescent Point Group, participated. The financing will enable London-based XConnect to continue expanding its "Interconnect 2.0" portfolio, which includes Carrier ENUM-registry and multimedia interconnection hub services.

Interconnect 2.0 offers the most comprehensive suite of services to meet operators' growing needs to efficiently deliver new revenue-generating multimedia services, such as high-definition voice and video, across IP networks, while increasing service quality and reducing costs.

XConnect operates the largest worldwide ENUM-based IP-peering federation, the Global Alliance, and the world's first national VoIP and NGN interconnection federations, in the Netherlands and Korea.

"This investment by Tier 1 venture capital firms during challenging economic times is a strong endorsement of federated interconnection and demonstrates belief in XConnect's Interconnect 2.0 strategy for driving migration from the PSTN to next-generation IP communications," said XConnect Chairman Ohad Finkelstein. "The global reach of our investors underscores their grasp of our company's worldwide impact and growing international prospects."

Eli Katz, XConnect CEO and founder, added: "The new funding is perfectly timed. The rapid global market adoption of NGN and VoIP infrastructure by fixed, mobile and Web 2.0 operators, together with the need to deploy rich multimedia communication services across networks, is driving demand for our next-generation interconnection and ENUM services."

In related news, XConnect announced that Torsten Kreindl, a partner at Grazia, and David Hand, a partner and managing director at Crescent Point, will join its board of directors. Before entering the international venture investment field, Kreindl, currently a Swisscom director, served as CEO of Deutsche Telekom's broadband cable business. Hand brings experience in emerging markets from a corporate-finance perspective, developed at Crescent Point and Morgan Stanley, and specializes in Asia-Pacific investments.

"We are enthused to be contributing to the continuing growth of XConnect - an innovative pioneer that is uniquely primed to ride the NGN wave and promote the transition to all-IP communications," Hand said. "We are particularly impressed by XConnect's track record in Asia, where its establishment of the first Korean IP-peering federation signifies leadership and points to expansion in emerging markets."