Telstra pumps AU$4M into Aussie cloud company

As part of Telstra's move into cloud investment, the company today announced that it has plugged AU$4 million in funding into Melbourne-based cloud company Whispir.

In June last year, the company announced that it would put AU$800 million into cloud services over the next five years, with CEO David Thodey saying that being a cloud provider was in Telstra's DNA. Shortly after, the company established its Applications and Ventures group, led by group Managing Director Deena Shiff. The group was given a AU$50 million pool of funding to invest in startups, not only in Australia, but across the globe.

Telstra announced today that $4 million of this will go to Whispir, a company that offers a cloud-based platform for an organisation's employees to communicate with one another, allowing information be sent out to SMS, voice, email, online, and social media at once.

Shiff said today that Telstra is already selling the Whispir platform to its enterprise and government customers, and the investment in Whispir will allow the company to grow into Asia.

"Whispir provides a leading platform for business critical communication, and we see very real growth opportunities for this business. This investment will enable Telstra to continue to differentiate our customer offerings by distributing next generation mobile, cloud, and media applications," she said in a statement.