JaJah gets love ($2M) from Sequoia

Sequoia Capital has invested $2M in JaJah, an Austrian-VoIP start-up that wants to be what else: a Skype-killer.

The company, Jajah Inc., which pledged to make cheap Internet calls as simple as using a search engine, is starting its service in the United States. It also has an office in Luxembourg and a development center in Israel.

The service works once a user visits jajah.com, fills in her phone number and the number she's trying to reach. With a click of the mouse, the user's phone rings and the call connects to the other telephone.

Its founders say that many people have been slow to try Internet telephony -- services offered by the likes of Skype, Yahoo or Vonage -- because, until now, they've had to download software, speak through a computer or get a phone adapter and a broadband Internet plan.

Jajah is selling its services to consumers in 60 countries. Calls from those 60 countries can be made to any destination in the world. Jajah's rates will average around 1.7 cents to 1.9 cents a minute for domestic calls. International calls vary. Calls from the U.S. to South Korea, for instance, range from 3.3 cents a minute to 6.6 cents a minute.