Brightware, Inc. Closes $11.55 Million in Venture Capital Financing.NOVATO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 14, 1997--Brightware, Inc., the market leader in customer-direct selling on the Net, today announced that it has completed a second round of venture capital financing To start an own company or to bring a new product to the market, the venture may need to attract financial funding. There are several categories of financing possibilities. If it is a small venture, then perhaps the venture can rely on family funding, loans from friends totaling $11.55 million. Advanta Partners LP, a new investor in Brightware, led the Series B Preferred stock Stock shares that have preferential rights to dividends or to amounts distributable on liquidation, or to both, ahead of common shareholders. Preferred stock is given preference over common stock. Holders of preferred stock receive dividends at a fixed annual rate. financing with a $5 million investment. Additional investors participating in the financing included Hambrecht & Quist, Norwest Venture Capital, TTC TTC Trying To Conceive TTC Toronto Transit Commission TTC Trans Texas Corridor TTC Toutes Taxes Comprises (French) TTC Trident Technical College (North Charleston, SC) TTC Temporary Traffic Control Ventures, Venrock Associates, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Of these investors, Norwest and Venrock had previously invested in Brightware and remain the company's first and second largest investors respectively. "Brightware's mission is to make the Net the world's best sales channel," said Chuck Williams
"Brightware has made tremendous progress since we first invested in them two years ago," said Kevin Hall, partner of Norwest Venture Capital. "They have pioneered a new software application space for selling on the Internet, developed a family of integrated enterprise products, and convinced major customers to use this capability to improve the efficiency of corporate sales and marketing efforts." "This round of financing is the appropriate next step in Brightware's financing history and strongly positions the company for accelerated growth in its dynamic market," said Mitchell Hollin, managing director at Advanta Partners. "Advanta is highly selective in the ventures it chooses and has a strong track record in assisting the successful development of other leading technology companies. Our focus on the information services See Information Systems. industry and strong affiliation with our primary funding source, Advanta Corporation, will prove extremely beneficial to Brightware." "Brightware now has the capital to dominate the sales server segment of the Internet packaged applications market, a market IDC Research has forecast to be $6 billion by the year 2000," said Michael P. Thoma, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Brightware. "With this investment we can specialize our products for our key vertical segments to build on our dominant market share in financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. and grab 'first mover' advantage in the high technology sector." Specifically, the financing will be used to extend the Brightware product line and expand the company's marketing and sales activities. Brightware recently launched Brightware 1.0, a sales server with an inbound marketing agent that helps companies turn their Net presence into a round-the-clock selling tool by actively soliciting questions from Web visitors to engage them as sales leads. The investment will permit Brightware to significantly expand the scope of its sales server by adding additional agents to perform other key functions in acquiring and retaining customers and by integrating the product with market-leading software from Brightware partners such as Microsoft and Lotus. In addition, following on the heels of its most successful product launch ever, the company plans to expand its sales presence across the US, Europe, and the Pacific Rim Pacific Rim, term used to describe the nations bordering the Pacific Ocean and the island countries situated in it. In the post–World War II era, the Pacific Rim has become an increasingly important and interconnected economic region. to capitalize on Cap´i`tal`ize on` v. t. 1. To turn (an opportunity) to one's advantage; to take advantage of (a situation); to profit from; as, to capitalize on an opponent's mistakes s>. the large volume of sales leads for Brightware 1.0. Brightware will aggressively support this sales force expansion with increased marketing activities worldwide. About Advanta Partners LP Advanta Partners LP is a private venture capital investment firm formed in 1994 with $100 million in committed capital. It focuses primarily on growth capital financings, restructurings, and management buyouts in the information and financial services industries. Advanta Partners' primary funding source is Advanta Corporation, one of the country's leading consumer financial services providers, with managed assets of more than $20 billion, and the nation's ninth largest issuer of credit cards with more than 6 million cardholders. Advanta Partners has invested more than $70 million since its inception. About Hambrecht & Quist Hambrecht & Quist is a leading underwriter of public equity as well as a leader in mergers and acquisition advisory and venture capital services for growth companies. H&Q has established an international presence as one of the premier banks for growth companies, and is one of the founders of EASDAQ See European Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation. , the exchange which lately began its operation in Europe with the purpose of becoming the encompassing exchange for growth companies in Europe. H&Q's principal offices are in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , and Boston, with additional offices in Europe, Asia Pacific, and southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . H&Q's common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : HQ). About Norwest Venture Capital Norwest Venture Capital actively manages $600 million in investments, and has raised more than $1 billion since inception. The firm consists of six partners with offices in Palo Alto Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Boston, and Minneapolis. Norwest has a broad private equity investment focus, including software and the Internet, data communications data communications, application of telecommunications technology to the problem of transmitting data, especially to, from, or between computers. In popular usage, it is said that data communications make it possible for one computer to "talk" with another. , telecommunications, semiconductors, and subscriber-based services. Additional information on Norwest Venture Capital may be obtained via the World Wide Web at www.norwestvc.com or by calling 415/321-8000. About TTC Ventures TTC Ventures is the venture capital arm of The Thomson Corporation, one of the world's largest information publishers with over $7.7B in 1996 revenues. Some of the better-known names among Thomson's 300-plus divisions include West Publishing (the largest legal publisher in the US), leading financial information providers such as First Call and Securities Data Publishing, and medical reference staples like Physicians' Desk Reference Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR), n a comprehensive reference book detailing the composition and accepted applications of pharmaceuticals from major manufacturers. . About Venrock Associates Venrock Associates is the venture capital investment arm of the Rockefeller Family, continuing a tradition of funding entrepreneurs that now spans six decades. With offices in both New York and California, Venrock is one of the oldest venture firms in the United States. With more than 200 investments, the national firm has an established tradition of identifying and investing in promising early stage, high technology companies. About Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is one of the country's leading law firms specializing in the representation of emerging growth to Fortune 500 companies in the high technology and life sciences industries. The firm's 400 lawyers regularly advise more than 250 public companies, 1,700 emerging growth companies, and the venture capital funds Venture Capital Funds An investment fund that manages money from investors seeking private equity stakes in small and medium-size enterprises with strong growth potential. Notes: and investment banks that support them. About Brightware, Inc. Brightware is the market leader in customer-direct selling on the Net. Brightware offers customer-direct application products that use AI technology to establish the two-way communication required to make the Net a viable marketing and sales channel. Brightware's applications turn "hits" into qualified leads, low-cost sales, and satisfied customers. Brightware is targeting Fortune 1000 companies who are aggressively pursuing customer-direct marketing and selling on the Net. For more information, please visit Brightware's Web site at http://www.brightware.com or call (800) 532-2890. CONTACT: The Horn Group Michael Teeling, 650/579-6427 mteeling@horngroup.com or Brightware, Inc. John Knightly, 415/884-4744 knightly@brightware.com |
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