Mobile video calling firm Tango nabs $42M in VC, expands features to PCs

In just nine months, Tango has attracted more than 18 million users to its free mobile video calling service. Now, it's looking to take the next step and announced that the service will be available for PCs later this summer.

The startup already operates on iPhones, iPads and on smartphones and tablets running the Android OS; it lets users of either operating system talk across platforms over 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi networks.

"We are growing at an unprecedented rate," said Uri Raz, cofounder and CEO of Tango. "There are 1.5 billion PCs in use worldwide and 95 percent of the world's computers run Windows. With this launch, we are well positioned to reach our goal of 100 million customers by this time next year."

The service hasn't had a difficult time finding funding, and Tuesday Tango announced it was closing a $42 million Series B funding round. The company said it plans to use the money to speed up its product delivery cycle.

Investors leading the latest round of funding include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the first investors in Skype, and a venture capital vehicle led by noted investors Len Blavatnik and Alex Zubillaga.

"We think this could be bigger than Skype was," says Tim Draper, a managing director of the firm.

The company has been growing quickly since it launched last September; Tango says it adds one million users every two weeks and is now available in 190 countries.

For more:
- see this release
- see this WSJ article