One if by land, 4.6 million Ifbyphone. Internet start-up gets multi-million dollar VC investment.

Rating: “Shaky” economy still yields big bucks for Chicago firm.

Proving that there’s still money out there to be had despite economic Prophets of Doom, award-winning voice application company Ifbyphone has secured 4.6 million dollars of funding from five VCs.

What do they do?

Ifbyphone sells hosted voice application services.

Yeah, I had no idea what it meant either.

Basically, it provides small to medium sized companies with cheap, reliable automated telephone services. It offers software that makes customisable, timed phone calls with response recording and analysis. It also offers voice recognition software for interactive voice response applications… if you’ve ever spent fifteen minutes shouting “No! Yes! Eight o’clock! EIGHT O’CLOCK! NO!” down the phone at a robotic cinema ticket office then you’ll know how frustrating bad VR software can be.

From the press release:

“We view this new round of funding as a strong endorsement of our growth and expansion strategy,” said Ifbyphone founder and CEO Irv Shapiro. “It positions us extremely well to continue our expansion during these complex economic times.”

Ken Green, co-founder and managing partner at Spring Mill Venture Partners said “We are very excited to be a part of the Ifbyphone investor group. We believe that Ifbyphone represents the next great wave of Internet-enabled business services, allowing small and medium-sized businesses access to capabilities previously only available to their larger competitors. This kind of service offers an opportunity to level the competitive playing field.”

What we think?

Are these guys actually any good?

Firstly, five companies have 4.6 million dollars worth of faith in them. Apex Venture Partners, Origin Ventures, Spring Mill Venture Partners, i2A and Blue Crest Capital Finance L.P. were all willing to invest heavily even in the face of a big downturn.

Secondly, twelve days ago FierceVoIP awarded Ifbyphone a place on their “Fierce 15” list, designating it as one of the top IP communications companies of the year.

So they must be doing something right.

It’s also nice to see an eager, up-and-coming company get this kind of investment. It offers the right kind of encouragement to all the other start-ups out there. Work hard, and there are real rewards available.