Val Babajov - Invest Bulgaria Agency

WebMessenger
“How we found, invested in, built and sold two and a half
times the same company between 1993 and 2012"
Val Babajov
Founder & Managing Partner, VoiVoda
Ventures
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Val Babajov:
Serial Entrepreneur
Angel Investor
Three
decades of software development
and business management experience
Member of Five Angel Groups
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Val Babajov:
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Self-made Man: immigrated to the US in
1989 with only $100 in his pocket
Strong Value System: Word as important
as Paper
Personal Drive to Succeed
“Entrepreneurs can accomplish anything when
they put their mind to it.”
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Founder and Managing Director of VoiVoda
Ventures:
Early stage
investment fund focused on B2B software
technology startups
16 portfolio companies
(9 in 2012 and 2 in 2013) and 5
successful exits, 2 of which in 2012
 Invested in 3
Startups with Bulgarian founders – Xform
Computing, Vertigo, LeanPlum
Identifies
top startups from around the world and
assists in transferring their IP and raising their first major
round of funding in California
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Award winning mobile instant
messaging product company
2001
The foundations of
what will become
Webmessenger are
established
Dotcom Boom
1993
Engineering offices in six
countries
IP in medical software, digital
media, mobile software and
communication
Wide range of clients including
large corporations and startups
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WebMessenger
 Founded in 1993 in the garage in Los Angeles, later expansion to New
York, Toronto, Bucharest, Sofia
 1993 First product: Fax-to-Fax Internet Solution
 1996 Custom software development for medical electronic companies
 1998-2000 EarJam, Internet Media Player and Portal
 2000 Enterprise Mobile Instant Messaging & Presence Platform
 Global Partners and Clients including IBM, Nokia, Blackberry, Leman
Brothers
 Seamless 24/7 global engineering and programming operation
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Dotcom
Crash
Pivot: business to enterprise
level unified mobile instant
messaging
2007
Acquisition by Apptix (OSE: APP)
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2008
Apptix stock crashes,
Webmessenger division
is mismanaged and
neglected
2008
Val orchestrates a
management buyout of the
technology from Apptix for
pennies on the dollar
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2008
Sold to CallWave / Fuzebox
(NASDAQ: CALL) 6 weeks prior
to 2008 financial collapse. At
the time Lehman Brothers
was a customer
Present
Fuzebox develops and
promotes the platform ports it
to iPhone and Google Android
operating systems
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 2008 - Software development and services with focus on mobile applications
 Offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, employing 37+ engineers in Sofia
 Specialized teams for Telecommunications, Wireless Internet Communications,
Instant Messaging, Digital Media, VoIP, Quality Assurance
 Rapid turn-around, quality software engineers, cost-effective solutions
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Prominent Clients – AT&T, Verizon, Citibank, Google, IBM, Nokia, Genetech
2008
Established as a spin-off of
WebMessenger with the employees
not acquired by CallWave
Developed IP for a variety of
companies ranging from Startups
to Large Enterprises
2012
Partners1993, Bulgarian operations
acquired by BroadSoft (NASDAQ: BSFT)
Acquisition of the team due to their skills,
expertise and knowledge, showcased in a
project involving BroadSoft technology
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When costs of bandwidth
and memory on the
“cloud” went down, a
powerful virtual computer
hosted on the “cloud”
became viable
Powerful Virtual
Computer in the “Cloud”
that can be accessed from
any Internet-capable
device
The Bulgarian CEO,
Kroum Antov
approached Val.
Over the past 3 years,
Val invested, mentored
and helped syndicate the
remaining financing for
Xform
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Large Development Offices in Bulgaria
 More than $10M invested
More than 700 programmers employed
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5 Successful Exits
- Wireless climate monitoring and control system for agriculture
- Acquired by Rain Bird in December, 2012
- Software development and services company in Bulgaria
focused on mobile applications
- Acquired for cash by Broadsoft in April, 2012
- AppStore solution company offering a white label platform and
a branded AppStore
- Exit to Opera Inc, 2008
- Award winning mobile instant messaging product company
based in USA with large development office in Bulgaria
- Exit to Apptix Inc, 2007, reaquired by VoiVoda, 2008, and exit
to CallWave Inc, 2008
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Thank You!
Val Babajov
Managing Partner
Email: val@voivoda.com
Skype: val_skype
www.voivoda.com
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