|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Emergence Capital Partners Creates Strategic Advisory Board To Provide Additional Value to Technology-Enabled
Service Companies
SAN MATEO, Calif. (July 20, 2005) – Emergence Capital Partners, a new venture capital firm that specializes in investing in technology-enabled services startups, announced today the creation of a Strategic Advisory Board to expand the firm’s company-building capabilities in its core investment category. Technology-enabled services (TES) is a promising new sector within information technology that leverages software technology to build scalable services companies. The board’s four members offer an unusual combination of cutting-edge insight into major new IT directions in conjunction with substantial operating experience at established technology companies. They will help Emergence Capital general partners Jason Green, Gordon Ritter and Brian Jacobs identify and invest in the most promising TES startups. The Chairman of the Strategic Advisory Board (SAB) is John Dillon, the former CEO of Salesforce.com and now CEO of Navis, a purveyor of supply chain execution software to optimize the flow of cargo at marine and rail terminals and road-based distribution centers. The other SAB members are Gerry Mooney, IBM’s vice president of global strategy; Peggy Taylor, former COO of PeopleSoft and a board member of RightNow Technologies and Fair Isaac Corp.; and Timothy Chou, former president of Oracle On Demand and author of “The End of Software.” "“Emergence Capital has unique experience and an exciting vision for next-generation technology investing,” Dillon said. “Technology buyers today simply want benefits without the usual hassle -- high costs, IT overhead and ownership headaches. Customers want vendors that understand their needs and use the latest technology to deliver solutions as a service. Emergence has invested in more than 25 of these next-generation companies and is well-positioned to be the leading venture firm in this new era of technology-enabled services.” Gordon Ritter, one of the founding partners of Emergence Capital and former co-founder and CEO of Software As Service, said the board represents a group of IT executives who represent a unique blend of long-term operating experience and a history of dynamic business innovation. “Each member of our Strategic Advisory Board has demonstrated significant success in prior waves of information technology and is helping lead this massive wave of technology-enabled services,” Ritter said. Emergence Capital and its SAB members have recognized that companies increasingly want to outsource critical but non-core business processes and focus their resources on areas that provide true competitive advantage in the marketplace. Companies such as Salesforce.com, an Emergence Capital investment, have demonstrated that outsourcing customer relationship management software, for example, can result in dramatically lower costs and higher productivity for customers. The SAB will work with Emergence to refine and share best practices in TES and leverage this knowledge across the entire Emergence portfolio. Jason Green, another founding partner of Emergence, said the SAB will further enhance Emergence Capital’s leadership position and enable Emergence to remain in “the epicenter” of TES startup investing. IBM’s Mooney, for example, is spearheading Big Blue’s On Demand Business Strategy, providing key infrastructure and services to TES companies. Dr. Timothy Chou, formerly president of Oracle’s On Demand Business, recently authored a book explaining this new trend and brings years of hard-earned lessons to the Board. Peggy Taylor is a seasoned operating veteran and prolific TES angel investor. Emergence Capital has made three investments since closing its debut $125 million fund in 2004. SuccessFactors delivers an On Demand human resources service to help manage and motivate human capital with more than 1 million end users around the globe. Visage Mobile, another Emergence investment, is the leading infrastructure services provider enabling large consumer-oriented companies, such as Disney and ESPN, to offer differentiated cell phone services quickly and efficiently. Their third investment, yet to be formally announced, provides a revolutionary automated service for maximizing the return on paid search advertising. Emergence Capital is the only venture firm to focus on TES startups. Other firms have made selected investments in the sector, but none have Emergence’s depth and breadth of TES experience. “We believe in the power of focus,” said About Emergence Capital Emergence Capital Partners, based in San Mateo, is a leading venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage and growth-stage technology-enabled services (TES). Over the span of their careers at other top tier venture firms and as entrepreneurs, the Emergence partners have helped invest in and build more than 25 TES startups, more than any other early-stage venture firm. For more information, visit http://www.emcap.com. |
|||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|