Kistefos Venture Capital invests in Paradial

Oslo, Norway, July 24, 2006:  Paradial today announced that the company has completed a directed share issue towards Kistefos Venture Capital (KVC) raising NOK 22 million (USD 3.5 million) . KVC is 100% owned by Kistefos AS. Kistefos has appointed two board members, including its Chairman. The directed share issue was managed by Pareto.

 

Paradial is in an expansionary phase after securing several contracts with key players in the IP-telecommunications market, including a leading mobile telecom vendor and LifeSize Communications. Paradial searched for investors with international experience that, in addition to capital, could also strengthen the company’s sales and marketing capabilities. KVC has all of these capabilities, primarily through existing investments in technology companies, e.g. Global IP Sound (GIPS).

 

Paradial is a highly competent Norwegian-based software company focusing on developing IP telephony technologies that enable secure and efficient communication solutions. Paradial’s founders are VoIP pioneers and have been developing IP telephony systems since 1996. Having been part of Ericsson’s IP telephony development since its inception, Paradial was founded on the realization that firewalls represent a major obstacle for the deployment and roll-out of IP telephony solutions. Paradial has developed firewall traversal solutions that make virtually all IP phones be able to communicate on all type of networks and firewalls without having to replace or reconfigure these.

 

Paradial is a component provider to IP telephony, Instant Messaging (IM), video conferencing vendors and service providers. Paradial’s firewall traversal technology, RealTunnel™ FW/NAT traversal, is patented and is probably the most comprehensive solution in the marketplace. Paradial also develops multi-party conferencing and click-to-call solutions.

 

LifeSize, the high definition video communications company, has integrated RealTunnel™ into their secure firewall traversal product. Paradial also has co-operation agreements with BEA Systems and a leading Fortune 100 industry player.

 

Paradial is expanding and expects to increase the number of employees significantly in the near future. KVCs investment and competencies are expected to further strengthen the company.