Kennet Venture Partners LLC (“Kennet”), a leading international venture capital firm focused on the technology sector, today announces the closing of a $10 million round of preferred equity funding in Resilience Corporation (“Resilience”), a fast-growing manufacturer of ultra-high-availability security appliances. Kennet led this round and was joined by current investor Baring Private Equity Asia.
The new funding will be used to fuel rapid growth that began last year when Resilience launched its Ndurant® and Ndurant Express™ appliance lines for Check Point firewalls/VPNs. Resilience also released in the first quarter of 2006 their new NetSquad™ appliances for Websense Web security and Protak™ appliances for Check Point‘s Connectra SSL VPN application.
Eric Filipek, director of Kennet Venture Partners LLC in Foster City, CA, has joined the board of Resilience as a result of the investment. “Resilience represents a great example of a technology business that re-invented itself on a model of capital efficiency and is now thriving,” states Mr. Filipek. He adds, “This financing provides the capital to enable Resilience to now scale its sales and marketing infrastructure globally and continue its rapid revenue growth. The market for best-of-breed applications delivered via an open, hardened appliance is very large and fast growing. Resilience is well positioned and now well financed to be a leading player.”
Resilience president and CEO Dr. Theodore J. Marr stated “Last year was a time of innovation and rapid growth at Resilience. Besides the launch of three product lines that use our patented Integrated High Availability™ technology, we also launched our revolutionary Continuous Secured Ownership Warranty(SM) program that effectively eliminates hardware end of life from customers’ solutions. The new funding will let us build on the momentum we started last year to expand our market share and build value for our investors.”
Kennet Venture Partners is a leading transatlantic venture capital firm which invests in growth companies providing information technology products and business services that leverage information technology. Kennet provides expansion capital to firms that want to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value in partnership with an experienced investor. Kennet Venture Partners acts as an advisor to Kennet II LP, a Guernsey limited partnership.
Resilience sets the standard for solutions that advance business continuity through its ultra-available technology for networks and its landmark Continuous Secured Ownership(SM) program that eliminates hardware EOL. Resilience has delivered innovative fault-tolerant and high availability network appliances since 1995. The company holds three key patents in fault-tolerant computing. Resilience partners with leading application providers to offer a growing family of High Availability solutions for: firewalls, Web security, SSL VPN, and others. Resilience is a privately held, venture-backed company with corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California and sales offices throughout the world.
Baring Asia specializes in providing expansion capital to rapidly growing middle market companies in Asia Pacific. Baring Asia currently has over US$ 800 million in capital committed for investment in Asia. Baring Asia has been a private equity investor in Asia since 1997 and has 20 investment professionals in offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Delhi, Bombay and San Francisco.
Resilience, Ndurant, NetSquad, RESlink, iHA, and Continuous Secured Ownership are trademarks of Resilience. Other trademarks are the property of their owners. All rights reserved © 2006
Investment will help fund international expansion
London - Kennet Venture Partners Ltd ("Kennet"), a leading international venture capital firm focused on the technology sector, has invested $8 million in Adviva Media Ltd ("Adviva"), the leading UK-based online advertising network for brand advertisers.
Adviva is a London-based provider of network online advertising services to major international brand advertisers. Adviva aggregates advertising inventory from its network of 200 high-quality websites and places this inventory with the media agencies that represent brand advertisers. Adviva currently serves over 500 million ads per month.
Adviva's network reached over 17.9 million unique users in October 2005, representing 62% of the total UK online audience. Adviva's network is consistently one of the top five UK properties in terms of unique user reach, along with MSN, Google and eBay.
Adviva was founded in 2000 by Todd Treusdell and Phil Coote and has historically focused its business on the UK market. The company is now developing its offering in Europe, expanding initially into Germany and France. With this expansion, Adviva will address the three largest advertising markets in Europe.
Kennet is the first institutional investor in Adviva, which to date has been funded through reinvested profits. As part of the investment, Kennet Managing Directors Michael Elias and Javier Rojas will join Adviva's board of directors.
"Online advertising represents a rapidly growing portion of overall ad spend, and the Internet is now used by brand advertisers who are increasingly shifting their spend from print, television and radio." said Michael Elias, Managing Director, Kennet Venture Partners. "Adviva's position as a premium brand advertising network puts it at the confluence of these two trends."
"We provide outstanding service to our customers and our proprietary 'lifestyle' demographic profiling technology allows our advertisers the ability to reach specific target groups, which are key to their brand," said Adviva CEO Todd Treusdell. "We are enthusiastic about the international expansion of Adviva and our partnership with Kennet."
Established in 2000, Adviva offers network online advertising to publishers and advertisers. A forward thinking approach to account management, coupled with an aggressive approach to technology development is crucial to Adviva's continued success. Built on reputation, Adviva concentrate on CPM network advertising working with good quality UK websites and advertisers. A no nonsense approach has made Adviva unique in the industry and has driven growth year on year to create one of the largest, most comprehensive and best performing networks in the UK. www.adviva.com
Kennet Venture Partners is a leading transatlantic venture capital firm which invests in growth companies providing information technology products and business services that leverage information technology. Kennet provides expansion capital to firms that want to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value in partnership with an experienced investor. Kennet Venture Partners acts as an advisor to Kennet I LP, a Jersey limited partnership and to Kennet II LP, a Guernsey limited partnership. Kennet Venture Partners is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. For more information: www.kennet.com
Will Fuel Sales and Marketing for Rapidly Growing Provider of On-Demand Project and Portfolio Management Software (PPM) for the Extended Enterprise
eProject (www.eproject.com) today announced it has closed an $8 million financing round led by Kennet Venture Partners LLC (Kennet) (www.kennet.com), a leading transatlantic venture capital firm.
Genevest (www.genevest.ch), a Switzerland based global technology investment firm also participated. The funds will be used to fuel sales and marketing initiatives for the rapidly growing provider of on-demand (software-as-service) project, process and portfolio management software for the extended enterprise.
Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) solutions enable users to maximize project ROI by compressing project cycle times, identify and automate best practices, optimize resource allocations, and deliver real-time status and information updates on project portfolios.
"eProject has reinvented the Project and Portfolio Management space by offering the first PPM platform that addresses the needs of the entire enterprise and can be deployed for business users and stakeholders across all departments. We believe eProject is spearheading a newly emerging and potentially very large market, proven by the explosive sales and organic growth and adoption of eProject in both mid and large-sized corporations across a wide-range of industries," said Javier Rojas, managing director of Kennet in Silicon Valley.
eProject, with more than 350 customers worldwide and profitable since August 2003, is currently realizing 70% annualized revenue growth. The company added more than 100 customers in 2004, with a list that now includes companies such as Amerisure, BP, BASF, Dow, Esurance, Honeywell, and RealNetworks.
"Project and portfolio management applications are gaining wider use within organizations and across more industries. One of the key contributing factors towards this trend is the advent of easy-to-use, easy-to-access and collaborative software-as-a-service project and portfolio management solutions," said Evan Quinn, group vice president of applications research, IDC (www.idc.com).
eProject is an easier to use, faster to deploy, lower cost alternative to traditional enterprise project portfolio management solutions typically found in large enterprises that are mainly used for IT governance applications. As a result, both IT and business users have deployed it for a broad range of management projects requiring cross organization participation.
"eProject has enjoyed spectacular growth during the past year, with hundreds of new companies deploying our solution. eProject has quickly become the standard software of choice for companies who want a single, unified platform for managing all their projects across their entire enterprise and beyond," said Steven Anderson, COO.
Genevest provides advisory services for institutional and sophisticated high net worth investors. With over 20 years of venture capital experience, Genevest invest in Information Technology, Communications, Material Sciences, Medical Technology and Life Sciences. Genevest designs a tailor-made investment strategy with its investors and executes through careful deal selection and due diligence. Genevest are long-term investors and understand that building companies takes time. For more information: www.genevest.ch.
Kennet Venture Partners LLC ('Kennet') is a leading transatlantic venture capital firm, which invests in growth companies providing information technology products and business services that leverage information technology. Kennet offers expansion capital to firms that want to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value in partnership with an experienced investor. Kennet acts as an advisor to Kennet II LP, a Guernsey limited partnership. For more information: www.kennet.com.
eProject (www.eproject.com) delivers the only on-demand project and portfolio management solution for the extended enterprise. eProject is an intuitive, unified platform that enables users to maximize project ROI by compressing project cycle times, identifying best practices and optimizing resource allocations, with rapid deployment and quick adoption. eProject is used by more than 350 companies worldwide including BASF, BP, Cushman and Wakefield, Dow Chemical, Honeywell and T-Mobile.
London – Kennet Venture Partners Ltd (“Kennet”), a leading international venture capital firm focused on the technology sector, has led a €12.0m financing round for Chipidea, an analog and mixed-signal semiconductor solutions provider. Vision Capital also invested in this financing round, as did existing investors, BCP Capital and BPI/Fundo Caravela.
Chipidea has developed one of the largest analog and mixed-signal technology portfolios in the world, ranging from precision single-function blocks to full analog sub-systems for communications, multimedia and power management applications. Founded in 1997, Chipidea now employs over 180 people based in Europe, Asia and North America. The company’s headquarters is Lisbon, Portugal.
Chipidea is profitable and achieved revenues of $18m in 2004, almost double that of the previous year. The company’s key products target fast-growing market segments such as wireless communications, digital media and consumer electronics.
Historically Chipidea has been funded with a combination of reinvested profits and a modest amount of external capital, provided by two industrial investors and two financial investors, both leading Portuguese institutions – BCP Capital and BPI/Fundo Caravela. Chipidea will use the proceeds of this financing to further expand its IP business and to launch a number of its own semiconductor products.
Michael Elias, Managing Director of Kennet, commented: “Jose Franca and his colleagues have built a world class semiconductor IP business using very little external capital. Kennet specializes in the providing expansion financing to capital-efficient business with global opportunities. We are therefore delighted at the opportunity to invest in Chipidea and help take it to it next level of development.”
Jose Franca, co-founder and CEO of Chipidea, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Kennet and Vision as new financial partners to Chipidea, as well as the further investment from our existing investors BCP Capital and BPI/Fundo Caravela. This investment will enable us to consolidate our leadership position in the analog and mixed signal market.”
Kennet Venture Partners is a leading transatlantic venture capital firm which invests in growth companies providing information technology products and business services that leverage information technology. Kennet provides expansion capital to firms that want to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value in partnership with an experienced investor. Kennet Venture Partners acts as an advisor to Kennet I LP, a Jersey limited partnership and to Kennet II LP, a Guernsey limited partnership. Kennet Venture Partners is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
For more information: www.kennet.com
Chipidea is the world’s number one analog/mixed-signal merchant technology supplier targeting fast-growing market segments like wireless communications, digital media and consumer electronics. Chipidea supports blue-chip customers across the globe, has an impeccable reputation for delivering high-quality products and is known for its reliable execution. Chipidea licenses its technology to leading companies in these and other key markets, delivering everything from precision single-function blocks to full analog sub-systems. Chipidea employs 180 people in its research and development, and sales and marketing offices across Europe, Asia and North America.
For more information: www.chipidea.com
Copenhagen, Denmark and Foster City, California - February 2005 - Venture capital firm Kennet Venture Partners (“Kennet”) has agreed to invest €5.1 million in Denmark-based Kapow Technologies A/S, provider of RoboSuite, a horizontal Web Integration software platform. Web Integration enables business users and non-technical programmers to rapidly integrate or extend applications and content. For corporations embarking on application integration, Intranet or portal projects, this means faster project ROI and considerable time-to-market advantages.
RoboSuite is already highly successful in the international market, with more than 70 customers worldwide. Kapow Technologies will use the capital to expand its international presence, and to further develop its suite of Web Integration solutions. The main focus of expansion will be the continuing build-up of Kapow Technologies’ US operations.
BEA Systems (Nasdaq: BEAS), a world leader in application infrastructure software, is a key technology and distribution partner for Kapow Technologies. RoboSuite WebLogic Edition complements BEA’s portal platform by enabling fast and easy integration of Web applications and content into the enterprise portal.
“We have been impressed with the capability of Kapow’s technology, and the degree of customer traction the company has achieved to date. For Kennet this is an opportunity to participate in a software industry paradigm shift — development of a new breed of integration solutions that can tie together applications and content with minimal IT skills required,” said David Carratt, managing director of Kennet in London. He added: “RoboSuite empowers businesses to integrate functionality from disparate sources for quick response to market demands, and at the same time it offers core IT staff the ability to deliver more services without resorting to heavy back-end application integration projects.”
“Having witnessed the business benefits of Kapow’s software within large US and European enterprises we are convinced that we can assist Kapow in accelerating the delivery of Web Integration solutions into the mainstream market. We look forward to working with the team from Kapow Technologies to build a successful US operation in the coming years,” said Javier Rojas, managing director of Kennet in Silicon Valley.
Stefan Andreasen, the CEO and founder of Kapow Technologies, states: “The investment from Kennet comes at a time when Kapow’s rate of new customer acquisition and revenues are growing rapidly. We are excited by the opportunity to work with Kennet to further accelerate this growth and to maintain our leadership in the area of Web Integration software.”
Kennet Venture Partners is a leading transatlantic venture capital firm, which invests in growth companies providing information technology products and business services that leverage information technology. Kennet offers expansion capital to firms that want to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value in partnership with an experienced investor. Kennet Venture Partners acts as an advisor to Kennet I LP, a Jersey limited partnership, and to Kennet II LP, a Guernsey limited partnership. Kennet Venture Partners is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
For more information: www.kennet.com
Kapow Technologies is the leading provider of Web Integration solutions. Kapow markets RoboSuite, an integration platform that enables fast and powerful integration of web-based content and applications into portals, content management systems and knowledge management systems. RoboSuite can access web resources and automate web interactions to extract and re-use online content, data or business functionality, regardless of origin or underlying technology. The platform includes an intuitive visual design environment, as well as comprehensive Web Integration lifecycle tools, that simplify integration and speed project delivery so that users can achieve faster and better results than with traditional integration approaches.
Kapow Technologies has more than 70 public and private customers worldwide. With a solid track record of documented savings of several man-years in portal projects and with an ROI in the range of 500 to 1000% in Web Integration projects, RoboSuite is becoming a key infrastructure component when developing, testing and deploying new Web solutions. Kapow partners with BEA, IBM, WRQ, CoreMedia, Inxight Software, Mobile Aware, Autonomy, Fatwire, Unilog, Synkron, Valtech, Softlogic, SoftPro, Domino Systems, Uptime and Avinci. Customers include Intel Corp, USACE, US Government, Deutsche Post, Lycos Europe, Barclays Bank, Total, DZ Bank, Swedish Defense and Danish Broadcasting.
For more information on the company: www.kapowtech.com
Kennet Venture Partners LLC ("Kennet"), a leading international venture capital firm focused on the technology sector, and JMI Equity, Inc, ("JMI"), a leading private equity firm based in the US focused on investing in companies in the enterprise software and information service markets, have acquired a majority stake in NetPro Computing, Inc., ("NetPro" or "the Company") a leading global provider of distributed services management software. Kennet and JMI have bought the majority of shares outstanding in NetPro in a secondary share purchase from existing investors for an undisclosed amount. The share purchase does yield a change of control of the company, as well as a new Board of Directors.
NetPro, founded in 1991 and based in Phoenix, Arizona in the US, will leverage the segment expertise and global reach of its new investor base and board of directors to continue driving sales growth and business development initiatives.
NetPro has approximately 3,500 customers which range from Fortune One to Fortune 1000 companies and include federal, state and local governments, universities and businesses in over 54 countries. The Company's customers include: Hewlett-Packard, KPMG, Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Paramount Pictures, Bank of England, Citigroup Inc, Mellon Financial Corporation, House of Commons, Swedish Parliament, JPMorganChase, EAD Airbus GmbH, United Nations and Swiss Re.
"This investment heralds NetPro's past financial results and future growth potential and introduces critical industry expertise", said Kevin Hickey, president & CEO of NetPro.
"In the first six months of this year, we have already well exceeded our 2003 annual revenue. This validates NetPro's positive growth trajectory and adds outstanding, industry-specific leadership to our board. The additional expertise brought in by our investors and the product development schedule will continue to bolster our market offerings".
NetPro has appointed Peter C. Arrowsmith, General Partner at JMI Equity Fund, Javier Rojas, Managing Director of Kennet Venture Partners, and Steve Whiteman, president & CEO of Intesource, to its board of directors.
"Arrowsmith, Rojas and Whiteman are highly regarded in the venture capital community, and are valuable additions to our board of directors", said Hickey. Hickey, who will maintain his board status, worked with Whiteman for nearly a decade during his tenure at publicly held software firm, Viasoft.
This is a typical investment for both Kennet and JMI as both funds invest in high-growth companies providing information technology products and business services that leverage information technology. Kennet and JMI provide expansion capital to firms who want to accelerate growth and build shareholder value in partnership with an experienced investor and will provide seasoned input as NetPro continues to ramp its business development and sales acceleration plans globally.
"NetPro has tremendous potential", said Peter Arrowsmith, General Partner at JMI Equity Fund, Inc. The company's quarter-over-quarter revenue growth, coupled with its exceptional product vision and go-to-market strategy, positions it for accelerated growth over the next 18 months. We look forward to working with the NetPro management team to drive the company to the next level of growth and market expansion.
Javier Rojas, Managing Director of Kennet Venture Partners said: "NetPro has delivered the best-of-breed network services diagnostics solutions for years however with its new product roadmap and senior management team the Company is executing at another level. Their products are delivering tremendous return on investment for customers and they have an impressive sales pipeline that clearly demonstrates that the message is resonating with new and existing customers. We're eager to lend our expertise on the board and play a key role in the new NetPro".
"We are very excited not only with the transaction but to continue with a significant investment in NetPro", said board member and investor, John C. Bentley, a partner with Grayhawk Venture Partners that were investors in the Series A funding in 1998.
Kennet Venture Partners is a leading transatlantic venture capital firm that invests in growth companies providing IT products and business services that leverage IT. Kennet provides expansion capital to firms that want to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value in partnership with an experienced investor. The firm has approximately $300m in capital under management. Kennet Venture Partners acts as an advisor to Kennet I LP, a Jersey limited partnership and to Kennet II LP, a Guernsey limited partnership. Kennet Venture Partners is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
For more information: www.kennet.com
JMI Equity Fund is a leading private equity firm focused on investing in high-growth companies in the enterprise software and information service markets. JMI invests in companies at all stages of development from start-up and expansion situations to management buyouts and recapitalizations. The firm has invested in over 50 companies and has approximately $400 million in capital under management. A number of portfolio companies have completed successful initial public offerings including BindView Development, eBenX, META Group, Mission Critical Software, NEON Systems, Peregrine Systems and Transaction Systems Architects. JMI has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and San Diego, California.
For more information, visit www.jmi-inc.com
NetPro delivers business-critical solutions to drive the availability, performance, security, and control of distributed network services. NetPro builds decades of experience into every enterprise solution to help customers minimize network downtime, leverage resources, drive down costs, and maximize ROI for such vital services as Active Directory, eDirectory, DNS, and MIIS. NetPro's partners include Microsoft Corp., Novell, Inc., and Hewlett-Packard, and its customer list features such respected organizations as Bank One, the U.S Army and General Motors.
For more information about MissionControl, please visit: http://www.netpro.com/products/missioncontrol/index.cfm
For more information about NetPro and its full range of products and solutions, please visit www.netpro.com or call 602.346.3600.