Founded in January 2006 by Hjalmar Winbladh and Jonas Lindroth, Rebtel's objective from the start has been to create a genuinely good, honest, and trustworthy global voice services company that saves its customers money.

The company's services allow registered users to create local phone numbers for themselves and their friends abroad. For example, a person in San Francisco gets a San Francisco phone number to call their friend in London, and the friend in London gets a London phone number to call the person in San Francisco. By connecting the local calls over the Internet using VoIP technology, Rebtel lets consumers bypass the excessive international fees charged by mobile carriers.

Rebtel services may be used by residents in more than 35 countries.

"We were impressed by the momentum that Rebtel has amassed since its Beta launched at the end of June," said Danny Rimer, Index general partner who joins Rebtel's board. "Now out of Beta, it is highly possible that Rebtel can create a sea change in the telecom market."

Johan Brenner, Benchmark's partner, who also joins Rebtel's board, said the team at Rebtel is both revolutionary and visionary. "They're clearly capable of building something that lasts; something that actually drives fundamental change in the telecom market," he said.

Added Benchmark partner, Peter Fenton: "We instantly recognized the power of Rebtel to transform mobile communications to deliver consumers the freedom they have come to expect on the Internet. We are thrilled to help the team realize their vision to deliver a truly consumer-oriented voice services company."

For Rebtel, the decision to accept outside investment was primarily about the people who will join the company as advisors and partners in the business, said Winbladh, who with Lindroth, co-founded Sendit AB in 1994, a pioneering mobile Internet software company they took public before it was acquired by Microsoft Corp. "For our market, we're getting a dream team with investors like Index and Benchmark," he said.