NAR Funds Ifbyphone, Applying SaaS for Realty Solutions
The National Association of Realtors (or NAR) has shown huge confidence in Ifbyphone by means of additional funding and augmented investment. The venture was made possible by NAR’s Second Century Ventures. Following the close of the deal is a collaboration that will proceed early part of 2011. This partnership hopes to develop solutions for voice interactions of over 1.1 million users of NAR.
NAR President Ron Phipps, broker-president of Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I. provided details and answers questions on how will Ifbyphone be able to support NAR in its continuous goal for solutions. He said, “NAR established Second Century Ventures to bring Realtor-focused solutions to the real estate marketplace.
In Ifbyphone we’ve identified a partner who can help our members grow their businesses. We look forward to working with Ifbyphone to create customer interaction solutions for our industry. Ifbyphone will help NAR members lower their cost of doing business while also offering them new ways to leverage their marketing and advertising dollars and generate increased sales in the process.”
At the other end of the deal is the Ifbyphone’s Founder and CEO Irv Shapiro. In his statement, Shapiro enumerated ways and means on how will they utilize the funds to spur growth and success for the organization.
“The investment by Second Century Ventures validates how Ifbyphone’s innovative solutions are helping small- to mid-sized businesses attract and retain more customers by managing, measuring and automating voice communications. These new funds enhance our continued efforts as the leading company automating the often forgotten voice component of customer interactions. Voice has been, is today and will continue to be a critical component of the customer engagement process.”
This round of investment has made NAR shell out an estimate of $8 million overall. Signing the round B of the funding are Ifbyphone Founder/CEO Irv Shapiro, Apex Venture Partners, Origin Ventures, Spring Mill Ventures and the i2A Fund. As a leading provider of voice applications for clients, they are actually helping the economy with their strategic planning. Other solutions that are said to aid NAR are the following: call tracking, customer notifications, interactive voice response (IVR), and virtual call center.
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