Acta Raises $14.5 Million in Mezzanine Financing; Customer Satisfaction & Market Potential Cited As ERP Data Warehousing Leader Brings Funding Total to $24 Million.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 24, 1999--

ERP data warehousing leader Acta, Inc. announced today that it has raised $14.5 million in its third round of financing.

This latest round of financing brings the company's funding total to $24 million.

"Acta's third successful round of financing recognizes their leadership in producing packaged data warehousing that addresses a real-world need," said Philip Russom, director of the data warehouse and business intelligence service at Hurwitz Group. "Many adopters of packaged ERP applications are now at the stage where the operational system is in place, and it's time for a warehouse component. These ERP adopters should turn to packaged data warehouse solutions to get great value out of the box and fast implementation."

According to the Gartner Group, the packaged data warehousing and business analysis market is expected to top $3 billion in 2000. Analysts expect the figure to grow as companies apply data warehousing architecture to Web-enabled customer relations and e-commerce.

New investors cited customer satisfaction and Acta's past and future potential in the packaged data warehousing market as the reason for their large investment.

"Acta has developed an impressive suite of solutions," said Garrett Van Wagoner, president of Van Wagoner Funds, the lead investor in the third-round. "But even more impressive to us is the extremely high level of customer satisfaction that the company has attained even as it has grown very rapidly. We anticipate that this funding will further fuel the company's growth, and we look forward to working with Acta to help them achieve their business goals in the rapidly growing decision support market."

Acta develops software for extracting and analyzing data from leading ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications. Proceeds from the latest round of funding will be used to support Acta's packaged data marts called RapidMarts, which can be deployed in days to address specific areas of business analysis, such as sales, cost, inventory and accounts receivable analysis.

Acta's customers are Global 1000 companies such as Chevron (NYSE:CHV), Shell Chemical Company, and Guinness. Acta will continue targeting large enterprises, many of which have invested heavily in ERP, but cannot afford the time and expense of customizing solutions for extracting and analyzing the data for decision support. The company's expertise with the leading ERP applications -- from vendors such as SAP (NYSE:SAP) and PeopleSoft (NASDAQ:PSFT) -- is seen as a strong market differentiator.

"Extracting mission-critical data from SAP and providing flexible, out-of-the-box integration with analytic applications and SAP is difficult," said Carol Mills Baldwin, president and CEO of Acta Inc. "I am impressed with the ability of the management team and Acta developers to achieve such a high level of integration between Acta and SAP, while providing world-class customer support. Our performance in engineering, quality, customer support, and sales and marketing has enabled us to exceed the expectations of our owners and our customers."

Acta investors in the third round were Van Wagoner Funds, Sycamore Venture Capital, Colman Partners, and Comdisco Ventures. They were joined by existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Greylock Limited Partnerships, and U.S. Venture Partners.

About Acta, Inc.

Founded in 1996, Acta, Inc. is the leader in packaged ERP data warehouse applications. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, and has offices in Frankfurt, London, and Paris.

Acta is an active member of the SAP Complementary Software Program (CSP) and PeopleSoft's Global Alliance Program. ActaWorks has been certified by PeopleSoft and SAP BW interface certified by SAP. Acta also has established strategic partnerships with leading business intelligence, database, hardware, OS, and systems integration companies. Acta customers include Chevron, FX Meiller, Guinness, Maxtor (NASDAQ:MXTR), Monsanto (NYSE:MTC), Sanofi Winthrop, S-B Power Tools (a division of Bosch GmbH), Shell Chemical Company, and other Global 1000 companies. Acta is located at 1001 Elwell Court, Palo Alto, CA 94304. Sales and partnership inquiries should be directed to Acta's toll-free phone number 888/613-3282.

For more information, visit Acta's Web site at http://www.acta.com.

Acta, ActaWorks and RapidMarts are trademarks of Acta, Inc. All other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.