CascadeWorks, the leader in enabling services e-procurement, today announced the completion of its second round of financing. The $8 million round was led by Kennet Capital Limited - Broadview's early stage venture affiliate, with existing investor NEA also participating. CascadeWorks will use the funding to continue its penetration of the growing market for services e-procurement solutions and to aggressively grow its customer base which currently includes leading companies such as ABN AMRO North America, Autodesk, Charles Schwab and Texas Instruments.
"We are impressed with CascadeWorks' ability to deliver immediate and significant cost savings to its customers which is critical in today's economy," said Javier Rojas managing director at Kennet Capital LLC. "As a result, CascadeWorks has successfully closed marquee customers, attracted key partners like Ariba and proven its ability to compete effectively against other top-tier technology players."
Completing this round of funding caps a series of recent accomplishments for the company. In October, CascadeWorks released CascadeWorks™ Clarity 3.0, the third-generation release of its application suite that leverages the Internet to drive the entire services purchasing life cycle, from requisition to payment, across multiple business units and all service categories in the enterprise.
CascadeWorks furthered its momentum by signing numerous strategic alliances. Most recently, the company announced an alliance with Ariba® Inc., through which Ariba will leverage CascadeWorks' Clarity Services E-procurement Suite to deliver Ariba® Workforce™, an Ariba-branded solution for selecting, procuring, and managing temporary staff, contractors, and consultants. The alliance provides CascadeWorks with worldwide market presence and Ariba the ability to offer new and installed customers greater cost savings.
The company also recently announced that top staffing firms joined the CascadeWorks Ready program, demonstrating their endorsement of CascadeWorks Clarity and the benefits of services e-procurement. CascadeWorks also signed a partnership with PrO Unlimited to offer optional vendor on premise services for companies preferring centralized staffing management. Other recent partnerships accelerated CascadeWorks' drive to deliver maximum value in the areas of human capital management, professional services automation and contractor compliance screening.
"In today's difficult business environment, funding is awarded only to companies that will emerge from this market as leaders," said Diana Jovin, CEO of CascadeWorks. "Clearly, the investment community has confidence that CascadeWorks is bringing real value to customers by driving significant cost savings in an area where companies currently spend the majority of their purchasing dollars. This funding is an endorsement of how important our solution is to businesses right now and our ability to lead in this new market for services e-procurement."
Kennet Capital Limited is the early-stage venture capital affiliate of Broadview, a leading global M&A advisor and private equity investor focused exclusively on the IT, communications and media industries. The fund has $275 million under management. Kennet Capital Limited places a strong emphasis on investments in networking and communications technologies, semiconductor IP, Internet infrastructure and enterprise software. Kennet Capital Limited strives to leverage the collective intellectual capital of the entire Broadview organization to the benefit of portfolio companies. Kennet Capital Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. For additional information, visit www.kennet.com.
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is a leading venture capital firm investing primarily in biotechnology, information technology, and medical/life sciences companies. Practicing classic venture capital for over 20 years, NEA focuses on early stage investments, playing an active role in assisting management to build companies of lasting value. With $4.9 billion under management, NEA's experienced management team has invested in over 400 companies, of which more than 135 have gone public and more than 150 have been acquired. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.
CascadeWorks enables Global 2000 companies to derive strategic business advantage from services e-procurement - the inter-enterprise process for sourcing, managing, and paying for services. CascadeWorks' integrated suite of applications, CascadeWorks Clarity, delivers improved management of spend, procurement process and vendor networks addressing the complex inter-enterprise interactions specific to the services procurement life cycle. In use at major corporations such as ABN AMRO North America, Autodesk, Charles Schwab and Texas Instruments, CascadeWorks solutions help businesses significantly reduce costs by optimizing spend, improving process efficiencies, and optimizing the management of their vendors across all categories of services. Based in San Francisco, CA, CascadeWorks is a privately held company with venture capital backing from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Kennet Capital Limited.