Fluency Voice Technology Ltd ("Fluency"), the UK-based provider of speech recognition applications has acquired SRC Telecom ("SRC"), the hosted speech application services provider from Voice Recognition Holdings.
In March 2004, Fluency received £6m funding; £3.5m from Kennet and £2.5m from Favonius Ventures, to fuel sales and expand product development in the area of packaged applications for vertical markets. Fluency is now expanding in the US and the funding will further support the development of partnerships and drive growth.
Fluency is a fast-growing business that has rapidly become the UK market leader in speech recognition applications for use in call centres. Speech recognition allows callers to perform simple tasks like ordering a brochure or finding out a bank account balance by speaking naturally via the telephone. Fluency's customers include: Powergen, National Express, Energis, Royal Mail, Barclaycard, Woolwich and JD Williams.
The acquisition of SRC will allow Fluency to offer hosted service provision in addition to in-network and premises-based solutions. It will therefore expand Fluency's market potential as well as encouraging the take-up of speech self-service more broadly.
SRC Telecom is well respected as a leading provider of hosted speech services, with a customer base including the BBC's Freeview and Lloyds TSB. SRC Telecom was a division of Voice Recognition Holdings (VRH), which will continue to own and operate its market leading digital dictation and desktop speech recognition business under the name SRC Dictation Solutions.
David Carratt, Managing Director of Kennet, said: "Fluency's speech applications are already used by many large enterprises in the UK and elsewhere and this acquisition further enhances the Company's offering. Kennet saw the opportunity to be the first institutional investors in a post-spinout company in a fast growing market place."
Alex Green, Fluency's CEO, commented: "The acquisition of SRC Telecom further strengthens Fluency's UK leadership in speech recognition solutions. It allows us to offer hosted speech recognition solutions, via an existing proven facility, to those customers who prefer this means of delivery. The SRC Telecoms business has excellent people, who will add to Fluency's unique skill base in the design and building of speech applications."
Chris Hart, CEO of Voice Recognition Holdings said: "This transaction gives SRC Telecom customers access to an even wider range of high quality telephony speech solutions, as well as being good for VRH's shareholders. The sale of the Telecom business will allow VRH to focus greater resources on further developing our fast growing dictation solutions business."
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 who 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
Fluency Voice Technology is a global provider of speech recognition applications. The company's solutions enable large enterprises to significantly reduce costs and enhance customer service.
Fluency provides sector specific applications that allow the automation of high volume contact centre activities. Key sectors for which Fluency has deployed applications include Retail Banking, Travel & Transport, Utilities, Retail & Distribution and Telecoms. Fluency has offices in the UK, US and India.
Fluency is privately owned and backed by two major European technology venture capital firms, Kennet Venture Partners Ltd and Favonius Ventures.
For more information, please visit www.fluencyvoice.co
Kennet Venture Partners ("Kennet"), an international venture capital firm, today disclosed that its funds sold their stake in Ubizen, the Belgium based provider of Managed Security Solutions for global businesses, to Betrusted, a global provider of security and trust services. Kennet's investment in Ubizen was held within Ubidco, a vehicle established to acquire a stake in Ubizen.
Ubizen had been the target of separate competing take-over bids from Ubidco and Betrusted earlier this year. In late January 2004, Ubidco purchased 34.7% of Ubizen in a public tender at €0.95 per Ubizen share. In early May 2004 Betrusted acquired Ubidco at €2.10 per Ubizen share, creating a significant gain for Kennet, even after transaction and other deal-related expenses. Prior to this transaction, Betrusted held 44% of Ubizen.
Michael Elias, Managing Director of Kennet Venture Partners, said: "When the Ubidco consortium initiated its tender for Ubizen we saw an opportunity to invest in a company with great potential in a rapidly growing market. However, following Betrusted's purchase of 44% of Ubizen, we concluded that the company would benefit from a shareholder base that had a unified view of long-term strategy.
Kennet invests in companies for three to seven years to help build long-term shareholder value. It is extremely rare for us to exit an investment in a matter of months, but this was an unusual situation, and one which generated a very successful return on our investment."
Kennet Venture Partners is a leading transatlantic venture capital firm which invests in growth companies providing IT products and business services that leverage IT. Kennet provides expansion capital to firms which 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
Ubizen is the principal provider of Managed Security Solutions for global businesses. Companies rely on Ubizen OnlineGuardian(R) services to manage, monitor and support security devices 24x7x365. Ubizen's Professional Services complement Ubizen OnlineGuardian services, by helping enterprises plan and implement security policies and infrastructures. Ubizen also protects Web servers against application-level attacks with Ubizen DMZ/Shield(TM) Enterprise.
For more information visit www.ubizen.com
Two European technology venture capital firms, Favonius Ventures ("Favonius") and Kennet Venture Partners Ltd ("Kennet") have joined forces to invest £6m ($11m) in Fluency Voice Technology Ltd ("Fluency"), the UK-based provider of speech recognition applications. Kennet will invest a total of £3.5m whilst Favonius will invest a further £2.5m.
Fluency is a fast-growing business that has rapidly become the UK market leader in speech recognition applications for use in call centres. Such applications allow callers to carry out common tasks such as finding out a bank account balance or booking travel tickets using natural language over the telephone. As a result, the enterprise can substantially reduce costs while maintaining excellent customer service.
Fluency will use the new funding to fuel sales and expand product development in the area of packaged applications for vertical markets. The company is now expanding in the US and the funding will support the development of partnerships to drive the growth there.
Fluency's management team is led by Alex Green, CEO, who joined in 2002 and was previously CEO of Broadsystem, a subsidiary of News Corporation providing outsource voice and call centre services. Paul Barnes, Fluency's founder, is now Sales Director while David Abensour, who was also instrumental in creating the original team, is CTO. Richard Watrasiewicz is Operations Director, having joined when Fluency acquired Vocalis in August 2003.
netdecisions created Fluency in 2001 as a spin-out of its Cambridge-based Research and Development team. netdecisions has incubated the business since its inception through the provision of funding, professional service support and strategic direction. netdecisions is renowned for innovation which extends beyond services to clients, to direct investment in building businesses such as Fluency.
Fluency's flagship software is VoiceRunner™, an application configuration environment allowing non-technical as well as technical users to create and modify speech applications. The company is focused on creating packaged applications in the financial services, travel, utilities, retail and telecoms sectors.
Fluency's customers include Barclaycard, National Express, Royal Mail, Powergen, Energis, JD Williams, Chelsea Building Society, Wells Fargo and Fujitsu.
MarketClusters, a strategic positioning consultancy, has assisted in supporting Fluency's business development and venture capital strategy.
Stephen Duckett, Managing Director of Favonius, said: "Favonius is looking forward to working with Fluency over the coming years to build a clear global market leader in advanced speech solutions for large enterprises. Fluency's solutions deliver a very rapid ROI to their customers in comparison to existing solutions today and this ability to create value for customers looks set to provide a strong foundation for continued rapid growth"
David Carratt, Managing Director of Kennet, said: "There is an excellent investment opportunity in being the first institutional investors in a post-spinout company. Fluency's speech applications are already used by many large enterprises in the UK and elsewhere and our experience of this sector means we know that it is an exciting and fast growing marketplace in which to invest."
Alex Green, CEO of Fluency, added: "Fluency has grown rapidly into the UK market leader and a global player in speech applications. We will use the new capital to expand our sales and marketing activities, particularly on major partnerships in the US, where we are gaining excellent momentum. We will also be developing our packaged applications offering, where we have a unique opportunity to lead the creation of a new market. Fluency will undoubtedly gain from the support and experience of the investors."
Kennet Venture Partners (www.kennet.com) 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 who 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.
Favonius Ventures is a European venture capital group focused on providing capital and operational support to growth businesses in enterprise and communications software markets. With four partners based in London and Amsterdam Favonius has now partnered with six rapidly growing companies since the raising of its first fund in 2001 and expects to add further 'partners' in the coming year.
Fluency Voice Technology is a leading global provider of packaged speech recognition applications for use in call centres. Our solutions enable large enterprises to significantly reduce costs and enhance customer service. We provide sector specific applications that allow the automation of high volume contact centre activities. Key sectors for which we have developed applications are Financial Services, Travel & Transport, Utilities, Retail and Telecommunications. For further information please visit www.fluencyvoice.com
netdecisions is an integrated group of companies that provides organisations with leading business-focused technology solutions. Working across the public and private sectors, we design, build and operate practical technology solutions that bring real and lasting benefits to our clients.
From designing and configuring IT architectures for global companies (ND Solutions), or building community focused IT service platforms for local councils (Agilisys), through to operating state-of-the-art call centres in the UK & Ireland for the financial services sector (Contact Partners) we pride ourselves on the breadth and depth of the skills and capabilities we can offer our clients.
Kennet Venture Partners Limited, ("Kennet"), the European technology venture capital firm, announces today that it has appointed Manish Mittal as Finance Director.
Manish has spent the last three years with Advent Venture Partners, most recently as Financial Controller, a position he had held since early 2001. Prior to this, Manish worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in the audit department as an Assistant Manager.
Michael Elias, Managing Director at Kennet Venture Partners said: "We are delighted that Manish has joined the Kennet team. Manish brings significant, relevant experience of dealing with venture capital finance issues having worked within this area over the past three years."
Manish started as Finance Director at Kennet Venture Partners on 16 February 2004.
Kennet Venture Partners (www.kennet.com) is a leading European venture capital firm focused exclusively on the IT, communications and media industries. Kennet Venture Partners places a strong emphasis on investments in networking and communications technologies, semiconductor IP, Internet infrastructure and enterprise software. 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.
Venture capital firm, Kennet Venture Partners Limited, has completed its first round of funding of £3 million in Exony Limited, a UK-based software company that designs integration and reporting products for use in complex contact centres.
Exony will use the capital to expand its current product portfolio by developing additional products that will improve customers’ ability to analyse, integrate and automate elements of complex, distributed contact centres.
Kennet has been working with Exony since August 2002 to help the company realise the potential of its planned new product stream and this investment reflects the success of that relationship. During this pre-investment stage, Kennet worked closely with Exony and its customers, such as Cable and Wireless, NTL and Kingston Communications, to develop and validate an extended product strategy.
Kennet also introduced Jonathan McKay as CEO of Exony. He was formerly vice-President and General Manager of Sun Microsystems Forte tools group, following the acquisition of Forte Software by Sun in 1999.
Exony’s current products include Intelligent Contact Gateway, which links telephony systems and business applications and Intelligent Contact Reporting. This is a contact centre reporting product that provides a consistent user interface to generate analysis and reports, enabling effective management of call centre operations.
The Exony product suite is currently offered within the Cable and Wireless, NTL and Kingston Communications network and provides advanced customer interaction services for many of its large corporate customers. Users of Exony software, include Marks & Spencer, Alliance and Leicester, Norwich Union, Nationwide, Nectar and thetrainline.com (Virgin Trains).
“This is a compelling opportunity to build a business that we know well from a profitable start point,” said David Carratt, managing director of Kennet. “Jonathan joins an excellent management team and will add a high degree of experience and credibility in this fast growing and exciting market.”
Jonathan McKay, CEO of Exony, added: “Kennet is certainly showing confidence in the future by investing in technology of this kind now and its support of Exony is a real endorsement of our offering. The investment will help us to complete our development programme, which in turn will allow us to extend our lead and deliver solutions that meet our ever-changing customer requirements.”
Kennet Venture Partners (www.kennet.com) is a leading European early-stage venture capital firm focused exclusively on the IT, communications and media industries. Kennet Venture Partners places a strong emphasis on investments in networking and communications technologies, semiconductor IP, Internet infrastructure and enterprise software. Kennet Venture Partners acts as manager of Kennet II LP, a Guernsey limited partnership and advisor to Kennet I LP, a Jersey limited partnership. Kennet Venture Partners is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
Monis Software, a financial analytics software business backed by Kennet Venture Partners, has been acquired by SunGard Trading and Risk Systems, an operating group of SunGard (NYSE:SDS). Kennet invested $2.7m in Monis in 1998 and was the company's primary financial backer.
Monis is an established leader in pricing models, analytic libraries and data services for convertible bonds, equity options, FX options, interest rate derivatives, credit derivatives and credit default swaps. Monis will operate as an operating unit of SunGard Trading and Risk Systems, led by Emanuel Mond, co-founder and current co-chairman of Monis. The new unit will incorporate SunGard's TrueCalc application for convertible bond pricing and analysis, in order to leverage the synergies between the Monis and TrueCalc applications.
Mr. Mond said of the acquisition, "Over the last two years, we set out on a course to rapidly transform Monis to provide new and enhanced solutions for our clients. We created a new front-office system, released the latest and most comprehensive spreadsheet based application, and enhanced our data services. While we continued to grow as a company over this period, we believe that it is now necessary to partner with an industry leader like SunGard to capture valuable synergies and strengthen our resource base. Our complementary strengths with SunGard will enable us to deliver innovative solutions to our clients and prospects."
Jim Ashton, chief executive officer of SunGard Trading and Risk Systems, said, "With over 350 customers worldwide, mainly blue-chip companies, Monis is a reputable leader in providing pricing models and data services to financial institutions. SunGard offers Monis clients the resources and security of an established, reliable vendor partner. Pursuant to our strategy to bring best practice risk management to the buy side, Monis' client base, which includes a large number of hedge funds, will help us to more effectively support the evolving needs of that market."
Michael Elias, managing director of Kennet Venture Partners, was a member of the board of directors of Monis from 1998 until the acquisition by SunGard. He said, "The acquisition of Monis by a global leader such as SunGard is a testament to the quality of its products, its team, and the company's strong market position. Founders and co-chairmen Emanuel Mond and Brent Isaacs have done a terrific job building this business and I am certain that within SunGard, the company will continue to prosper."
Kennet Venture Partners (www.kennet.com) is a leading European early-stage venture capital firm focused exclusively on the IT, communications and media industries. Kennet Venture Partners places a strong emphasis on investments in networking and communications technologies, semiconductor IP, Internet infrastructure and enterprise software. Kennet Venture Partners acts as manager of Kennet II LP, a Guernsey limited partnership and advisor to Kennet I LP, a Jersey limited partnership. Kennet Venture Partners is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.