The last time Jill Stelfox set out to raise $3.5 million for a start-up company, closing the deal took just 90 days and involved meetings with 25 venture investors. Thatwas in 1999.
This time it took Stelfox, chief executive of Reston-based software company Defywire Inc., more than six months and meetings with more than 60 venture capital firms.
“And the interesting thing about it is we’re a better company this time,” she said. “We’re a much more advanced company.”
Today, Defywire plans to announce a $4.5 million institutional round of funding led by Intersouth Partners, a venture capital firm based in Durham, N.C.
Defywire has developed software that allows access to corporate networks using handheld wireless devices.
“It’s a big idea with a strong management team,” said Don Rainey, an Intersouth venture partner based in Reston who is joining the company’s board.
Defywire was founded early last year with about $3.5 million in seed funding, which was used for product development. This round will be used to fund sales and marketing expansion.
“We got to the point where the product was done, we had early customers, and we weren’t really able to keep up with demand,” Stelfox said. She expects the company to add about 20 employees in the coming year, most of them in the sales department. “We need to get ahead of the sales curve and get our name out there.”
Like many companies successfully raising money now, Defywire is already generating sales. Stelfox said she doesn’t expect to need another round, as the company is very close to breaking even.
“This is the only round that we’ll do,” she said.
Reported By TechNews.com, http://www.TechNews.com
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