Ribbit

About Ribbit

Ribbit, founded in February 2006 by Ted Griggs, Crick Waters, and Peter Leong, positioned itself as a telecommunications software company based in Mountain View, California. The firm's primary objective was to make voice communications a programmable feature that could be seamlessly added to web pages and software applications. Ribbit secured a total of $13 million in funding from venture capitalists including Alsop-Louie Partners, Allegis Capital, and KPG Ventures before its official launch on December 17, 2007.

The company's core offering was a multiprotocol, cloud-based platform that provided developers with tools and APIs to embed voice, SMS, and other communication features into their applications. This platform, built upon a carrier-grade soft switch called the Ribbit SmartSwitch, allowed developers to programmatically interact with global telephone networks using common tools like Flex, Flash, Java, and .NET. This enabled the creation of voice-enabled applications without requiring deep telephony expertise. The business model focused on creating an ecosystem where developers could not only build but also distribute and monetize their voice applications through a proposed 'Ribbit Store'.

Ribbit developed two flagship applications to showcase its platform's capabilities. The first, Ribbit Mobile, was a consumer-focused solution that integrated mobile phones with the internet, akin to Google Voice. The second, Ribbit for Salesforce, was an enterprise solution that embedded mobile voice communications directly into the Salesforce.com CRM environment. This application allowed mobile calls, voicemails, and text transcriptions to flow automatically into Salesforce, enabling users to play, read, and manage voice communications within their CRM workflow. The integration offered features like voice-to-text transcription and the ability to make and receive calls from a computer, acting as a backup for a mobile phone. Following its launch, Ribbit quickly gained traction, attracting thousands of developers to its platform. On July 29, 2008, British Telecom (BT) acquired Ribbit for $105 million in a cash deal, integrating the company into its Technology, Service and Operations division. The acquisition was part of BT's broader strategy to become a software-driven services company. However, on August 10, 2011, Ribbit announced the closure of most of its external-facing operations and its developer program.