One of the region’s best-kept telecom secrets has decided to up its roots from Perth, Australia and move to Silicon Valley after securing funding from A-list venture capital firms.

Project Goth operates mig33, a mobile Internet social networking community that has signed up some four million customers across the world while still in beta stage.

The firm announced yesterday that it had closed a Series A funding round of $10 million co-led by Accel Partners and Redpoint Ventures, with substantial contribution from Technology Venture Partners, to expand its service.

Project Goth CEO Steven Goh—who is Malaysian by ancestry— said yesterday that mig33 has attracted users in 200 countries since launching in beta in December 2005.   He said that mig33 is the first global mobile community bringing the power of the Internet and community by offering the benefits of inexpensive mobile VoIP calls, instant messaging, text messaging and social networking and community features. “Depending on the country being called, mig33 says users can save up to 95% on their international calls and roaming costs,” Goh said.  “For most of the world, the mobile phone is already the primary device for connecting to the Internet, and this trend is growing in the U.S.” said Goh.

“Our mobile platform let’s anyone get online from just about anywhere they are and immediately begin communicating and sharing with the community. With a potential five billion people still waiting to access the Internet we expect to be a primary window to the Web.”  Goh says that mig33 has more than 4 million users sending more than 15 million messages every day.  As part of the funding round, Project Goth is relocating to Burlingame, near San Francisco Airport. Goh explains the move as one “to realise the global potential of the business, we're moving the company to the epicentre of the tech universe.  We're out to build the best team we can, and deliver the most compelling experience for all our customers possible.” 

“There is a race on around the world to establish a mobile platform that can be the gateway to the Internet for literally billions of consumers,” said Kevin Efrusy of Accel Partners. “We believe mig33 is well down the path of becoming a leader in this global race to bring the Internet to most of the world.”   Goh says that Accel co-led the investment in Facebook and has backed companies like Adobe, Real Networks, Macromedia. Redpoint were the only institutional investor behind Myspace, he adds. “Our choice of funding partners should speak volumes about where we're taking the company,” he said. 

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