Vonage UK

The UK arm of Vonage, a business cloud communications company now owned by Ericsson, with a large London office in East London's tech district.

About Vonage UK

Vonage provides communications that run over the internet instead of over old phone lines. A business can use it for phone calls and team messaging, for contact centres where customers ring in for help, and for developer tools called APIs, which let programmers add voice, video and text messages to their own apps. Its API business grew from Nexmo, a company that began in East London and joined Vonage in 2016. Vonage also still offers home phone services over the internet. Most people use this kind of technology without noticing it, for example when an app sends a verification code to a phone.

Vonage was founded in the United States in 1998 as Min-X, a voice-over-internet exchange started by Jeff Pulver, and took the Vonage name in 2001. It began by selling cheap home phone calls and later moved into business communications by buying other companies, including Nexmo, NewVoiceMedia and TokBox. Ericsson, the Swedish telecoms company, completed its purchase of Vonage in July 2022. Vonage kept its name and runs as a separate part of Ericsson. We did not find a formal mission statement. In 2017 its then chief executive, Alan Masarek, said of London: "we see London as crucial to the continued success of our business".

Vonage entered the UK in 2005 and opened its first London office in Hammersmith that year. In 2017 it announced a new 22,000 square foot office on Bonhill Street, in East London's Silicon Roundabout area, to hold its existing UK team of about 200 people and room to grow. Tony Jamous, a co-founder of Nexmo, was named to lead the office. Companies House lists a UK company called Vonage Business Limited. The 200-person figure is from 2017, so we cannot say how many people work in the UK now.

Culture information is limited. The company's own announcements stress London's mix of tech talent and tech-savvy businesses as a reason to be based there, and Simon Burckhardt, then Managing Director of Vonage UK, spoke of wanting space for "our dynamic team" to grow. Because Nexmo was a London start-up, part of the UK team has a developer and start-up background, while the business communications side works more closely with companies that buy phone and contact-centre services. We did not find staff stories, so these are the company's statements rather than anything we could check.

A business like this employs many kinds of people. Software engineers build and run the platform, and solutions and support engineers help customers use it. Product managers decide what to build next, sales and customer success teams work with companies, and finance, legal and people teams keep the business running. If you enjoy computing, maths or explaining technical ideas to others, there is a place for you. Ericsson's ownership also means some work is shared with a much larger international group.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Developer tools for adding voice, video, messaging and phone verification to apps.', 'title': 'Communications APIs'}
• {'desc': 'Cloud phone and team collaboration tools for businesses.', 'title': 'Unified communications'}
• {'desc': 'Cloud tools that let companies handle customer calls and messages.', 'title': 'Contact centre software'}

Key facts

• Founded in the US in 1998 and entered the UK in 2005; first London office in Hammersmith
• Announced a 22,000 sq ft East London office on Bonhill Street in 2017 for about 200 UK staff (dated)
• Bought Nexmo, an East London-founded API company, in 2016
• ACQUIRED: by Ericsson (completed July 2022); keeps the Vonage name

Website: www.vonage.co.uk