In a venture funding environment especially tough for early stage and some middle rounds, New York-based Mi8 Corp. has managed to pocket $5 million.

The funds came from private investors, the company said, and are to be used to hire more sales people as the three-year-old company responds to demand for its messaging and collaboration software.

Since its launch in 1998, Mi8 has been renting its ASP software that helps enterprise customers adapt Microsoft Outlook, Exchange and Office applications to wireless access, email-to-fax, and other services. Its main application service offering is built around the Microsoft Exchange Server environment for messaging and collaboration.

The company also spent a considering amount of time and energy providing free wireless e-mail pagers to companies that had been displaced and impacted by the Sept. 11 attacks.