MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 26, 2003–<\/p>\n
Investment by Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital & American Express Will Expand Ketera’s ‘on Demand’ Solution Footprint & Services<\/p>\n
In a strong show of conviction in the company and the ‘on demand’ business model, Kleiner Perkins, Foundation Capital and American Express (NYSE:AXP) have invested $10 million in new funding in Ketera Technologies, the leading provider of ‘on demand’ spend management solutions.<\/p>\n
“This investment is a testament to Ketera’s success. The involvement of these leading investors is a strong endorsement of Ketera’s model of delivering applications as an ‘on demand’ service,” said Steve Savignano, Chief Executive Officer, Ketera Technologies.<\/p>\n
This latest round of funding quickly followed the company’s Series A round and was oversubscribed, demonstrating the investors’ strong belief in the application of ‘on demand’ in the spend management space.<\/p>\n
“We believe that the ‘software as a service’ model will fundamentally change the enterprise application industry – and we see Ketera as a leader in that market,” said Paul Holland, General Partner with Foundation Capital, who will also be joining the Ketera Technologies Board of Directors. “Ketera’s success through their IBM channel provides strong evidence of the growth of ‘on demand’ and provides good reason to be bullish on the company.”<\/p>\n
Ketera, a pioneer in ‘on demand’ spend management, is a business partner of IBM, supplying technology and services for IBM’s Leveraged Procurement Service, a solution for the source to pay process. In the past few months, Ketera and IBM have signed five major customers to use their joint solution, including a major financial services company, a well-known airline, a global transportation company and a major media company.<\/p>\n
“Traditional software solutions have been failures in the spend management area; they have not delivered on the promised value,” said Ketera CEO Savignano. “On demand spend management solutions provide a solution that is as much as five to ten time less expensive than software, providing rapid ROI. That’s a driving reason behind the strong commercial traction we are seeing at Ketera – and the foundation for our investors’ confidence.”<\/p>\n
“Ketera is an attractive solution precisely because of their ‘on demand’ model,” said Ed Stark, Vice President of Supply Chain Planning at Capital One, one of Ketera’s newest customers. “Ketera’s solution eliminates the headaches you get with software solutions and it speeds up ROI.”<\/p>\n
Savignano noted that there has been considerable commercial traction for Ketera’s spend management service among Fortune 1000 companies. Enterprises such as Universal Studios, Capital One, Vought Aircraft and CNF subscribe to Ketera’s services. He said that the new funding will be used to help meet the growing demand for the company’s services – as well as expand the solution footprint and related services.<\/p>\n
This is Ketera’s Series B funding round, and represents the first investment for Foundation Capital and follow-on investments for American Express and Kleiner Perkins. Texas Pacific Group and Bain & Company have also previously invested in Ketera.<\/p>\n
Savignano noted that Foundation Capital has exceptional operational experience that Ketera plans on tapping to meet the demands of its growth. He noted that Foundation Capital is also well known for making early stage investments in companies that went on to become public companies, such as Commerce One, Interwoven, Onyx, Chordiant and others.<\/p>\n
Experience to Meet the Demands of Growth<\/p>\n
Paul Holland, General Partner at Foundation Capital, who will be joining the Ketera Board of Directors, previously served as senior vice president of worldwide sales at Kana Communications and as general manager of Pure Software. At Kana, a leading supplier of Enterprise Relationship Management solutions, Holland built a team of over 350 people that secured more than 900 customers worldwide. At Pure Software, Holland helped significantly grow the start-up venture’s revenues, helping lead the company to the second most successful IPO of 1995 and bringing them from a market value of $2 million to over $1 billion in his five year tenure as vice president and general manager.<\/p>\n
Ted Schlein, General Partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, also recently joined Ketera’s board of directors. Schlein is well-known in Silicon Valley for his experience in enterprise software business management, specifically for establishing Symantec Corporation in both the utilities and antivirus markets. Ed Gilligan, Group President, Global Corporate Services, American Express, continues to serve as Chairman of the Ketera board of directors.<\/p>\n
Ketera also announced today that Rick Gustafson will join the company as Chief Financial Officer. Gustafson had been serving the company as a financial consultant for the past four months and was a leader in coordinating the latest round of funding. Gustafson has more than 15 years of financial management experience serving as interim CFO or as senior consultant to the executive teams of several emerging growth enterprise software companies, including Cohesiant, Steelwedge, Golden Gate Software and QuiQ. Previously, he served as Vice President, Finance, Administration & Corporate Development of PowerMarket, a provider of supply chain decision analytics software.<\/p>\n
About Ketera Technologies<\/p>\n
Ketera Technologies provides spend management solutions as an “on demand’ service, providing companies with the technology and services needed to control and reduce corporate spending at a low cost of ownership.<\/p>\n
Ketera Spend Management(TM) includes applications for spend analysis, sourcing, procurement, and payment & reconciliation. The Ketera difference is our “on demand” delivery model which combines hosted spend management applications with the ‘heavy lifting’ services required for success, including supplier enablement; hardware infrastructure, project resources, system administration and solution upgrades.<\/p>\n
Ketera Technologies is an IBM business partner, providing technology for IBM’s Leveraged Procurement Service (LPS), an e-Business On Demand offering. Located in Mountain View, CA, Ketera is a private company founded by American Express (NYSE:AXP). Other investors in the company include Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, TPG and Bain & Company. For more information about Ketera Technologies and the Ketera Spend Management(TM) suite of services, please visit www.ketera.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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