UK start up Palringo has received $5 million in first round funding from ePlanet Ventures and Kuwaiti investment group NTEC, according to Alarm:Clock Euro. The company was founded in May 2006 by 21-year old Newcastle-native Martin Rosinki, who created Palringo’s core technology that offers a mobile and PC instant messaging application with push-to-talk functionality. The service allows people to bypass instant messaging services offered by their network operator and use GoogleTalk, MSN and ICQ, among others. Mobile phone users and PC users can also instant message each other. Palringo’s technology allows mobile phone users to speak their message into their phone. PC users then receive the message as a link, which they can click on to hear the message being spoken. Palringo plans to use the funding to scale up its development and commercial teams. Existing investors include Northstar Equity Investors, Prime Technology Ventures and Esther Finance.