But making that change is more complicated for large companies. Many cloud telephony providers require customers to use a telecommunications carrier that they provide. That's a problem for enterprises that have already built infrastructure with another carrier. They also often are locked into contracts with these carriers. It's analogous to consumers who are locked into mobile plans, except companies changing to another carrier often have to make big changes, moving many phone numbers and phone lines.
To address this, Y Combinator startup Plivo is launching its "Bring Your Own Carrier" model. Now large companies can bring a carrier they already work with, and use their existing phone numbers and outgoing phone routes.
This is different than some other cloud providers, which resell minutes from carriers. That adds extra costs. Plivo doesn't add that cost because companies can continue paying what they already do. Plivo already offers cloud services, including voice and
Venky Balasubramanian, CEO of Plivo, envisions Plivo as eventually providing a broader marketplace for companies to quickly plug in to developers and carriers for a variety of telephony services.
In one example of how this works, a large unnamed "tier 1" university is using Plivo along with Oracle's Acme Packet technology that connects enterprise systems with Internet communications systems. Plivo is providing its WebRTC technology that enables audio and video calling in a web browser. (It was the first to have WebRTC connections between WebRTC and traditional SIP protocol for connecting web sites and browsers.) Now the university's students and staff can build cutting-edge communications applications using WebRTC.
The university has been able to move to a cloud-based telephony system while using its own carriers. "This university is just one of them," says Balasubramanian. "We're talking to a bunch of others having similar issues. They were looking to move to the cloud but not being able to bring their own carriers was a major hampering factor."
By signing up some of these large customers, Plivo has grown quickly. Over the past 8 months, it more than doubled its usage as well as its revenue in both its voice and SMS API products. Its small- and medium-sized business customers have increased five times over that span. And it has grown its team from 17 to 30.
Another customer Plivo worked with was Calliflower, a web and audio conference-calling company. Calliflower used Plivo to add new features including MP3 recordings, interactive chat and calendar integration. Again, the company was able to add Plivo while keeping its existing carrier.
Founded in 2011, Plivo has raised $1.75 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures,
