Venture Market Europe Cannes March 2007
Red Herring magazine’s top 100 Europe IT private companies for 2007.
Arteris
LOCATION Guyancourt, France
URL www.arteris.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2003
CEO Charles Janac
EMPLOYEES 39
FUNDING $12.1 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Crescendo Ventures, TVM Capitals, Ventech
Arteris claims to be the first company to have a commercial Network-on-a-Chip product. Its chips are used in communications and multimedia environments and, because of their design, use only one-third to one-half of the wires of conventional semiconductor systems. This reduces wire congestion and thus extends the battery life of mobile devices. Founded by several semiconductor veterans, the startup has been granted eight patents and has 20 patents pending. Customers include STMicroelectronics and Pixelworks, but Arteris’ main challenge is developing a consistent and reliable revenue stream. —L.S.
BitRock
LOCATION Seville, Spain
URL www.bitrock.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2004
CEO Daniel Lopez Ridruejo
EMPLOYEES 14
FUNDING N/A
KEY INVESTORS Self-funded
Companies wary of using open-source applications have a friend in BitRock, which aims to make open technology easier for businesses to use. Its innovative multiplatform installation tool makes it possible for new users to be up and running with open-source software in just minutes—as opposed to days. The technology sounds good, but right now the company sells only to independent software vendors, not directly to consumers and businesses—meaning BitRock will have to radically change its business model and products in order to court small- to medium-sized businesses that are already clients of rivals like SpikeSource and OpenLogic. —E.C.
Innovative Silicon
LOCATION Lausanne, Switzerland
URL www.innovativesilicon.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2002
CEO Mark-Eric Jones
EMPLOYEES 36
FUNDING $22 million, 2 rounds
FUNDERS Austin Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, Index Ventures, Auriga Partners, Soitec Standing at $16.5 billon in 2003, IDC projects the dynamic access memory (DRAM) market to reach $24.7 billion this year. DRAMs traditionally use expensive silicon substrates, but Innovative Silicon aims to change that with its patented silicon on insulator (SOI) technology that allows for more cost-efficient production of smaller chips. SOI technology, now found in IBM’s processors in Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3, just awaits mass adoption by chip makers. Advanced Micro Devices is helping, having agreed to license the technology, but if SOI gets widely adopted, there’s little stopping big-league competitors IBM and Toshiba from churning out SOI-based DRAM chips. —A.D.
Mindquarry
LOCATION Potsdam, Germany
URL www.mindquarry.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2006
CEO Stephan Voigt
EMPLOYEES 9
FUNDING Undisclosed
KEY INVESTORS Hasso-Plattner Ventures
Mindquarry launched an open-source software package in March that allows multiple users to simultaneously edit documents or collaborate through instant messaging and email. The company has ambitious plans to compete with Microsoft’s Sharepoint Server or IBM’s Lotus Connections. Today, Mindquarry offers downloadable software under the open-source Mozilla Public License agreement, but plans to roll out a hosted version with monthly subscription fees for businesses that need to get up and running on the collaboration tools within hours, rather than days. The company operates internationally with support from a venture capital firm SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner started in 2005, but will move its headquarters from Germany to San Francisco by 2009. —L.A.S.
NexWave
LOCATION Montpellier, France
URL www.nexwave-solutions.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 1998
CEO Joep van Beurden
EMPLOYEES 36
FUNDING $15 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS ABN-Amro Capital, Elaia Partners, Wellington Partners, Yasuda Enterprise Development, NTT Finance, NIF-SMBC
NexWave helps companies decrease the time and money it takes to create new digital consumer electronics. Its software products reduce the development period of applications embedded in a device—bringing them to market up to six months faster and 50 percent cheaper. Major clients include Mitsubishi and Hitachi, and not surprisingly the company has international offices in Japan, South Korea, and China. NexWave may have gotten such accolades as inclusion on the European Tech Tour, but after nine years it has yet to offer complete solutions for devices much beyond video players and televisions. —E.C.
Njini
LOCATION Surrey, England
URL www.njini.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2003
CEO David Jones
EMPLOYEES 31
FUNDING $17 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Accel Partners, Add Partners, Intel Partners
There are innumerable storage options, but Njini differentiates itself by taking storage a step further into orderliness. Think of a huge closet—it holds a lot, but without organization, a person’s wardrobe would be a confusing jumble of clothes. Njini’s software is not unlike shoe racks and sweater bags, automatically categorizing data and then storing files in the appropriate place. Though not exclusively focused on the telecom space, Njini’s biggest clients are Virgin Mobile and Colt Telecom. These might be impressive names, but they also underscore that Njini’s strength lies just in the United Kingdom—and that it’ll be hard to push into U.S. and global markets. —E.C.
Nuxeo
LOCATION Paris, France
URL www.nuxeo.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Stefane Fermigier
EMPLOYEES 35
FUNDING Self-funded
KEY INVESTORS N/A
Nuxeo markets an open-source document management system. Typical of open-source companies, Nuxeo does not sell its software, but sells services, training, and support that come with the software. The good news is that it competes against Documentum, Filenet, and Stellent—all companies that have grown through acquisition. As a result, Nuxeo markets itself as the only non-patchwork system. The bad news is that its three competitors have been acquired by larger companies—EMC, IBM, and Oracle—which makes it a lot tougher for Nuxeo to be seen or heard among the giants. But Nuxeo has been around for six years, and its open-source approach is favored by government agencies, schools, and a growing number of industries. —C.M.
Openbravo
LOCATION Pamplona, Spain
URL www.openbravo.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2001
CEO Manel Sarasa
EMPLOYEES 40
FUNDING $6.4 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Sodena
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) joins together and streamlines all of a company’s processes and data into a single system, usually combining both software and hardware. Openbravo ups the ante by making its ERP software open source, meaning the products are free—with optional paid services—and can adapt to a customer’s changing needs. In addition, the software is web-based. Other open-source ERP providers like Compiere and Opentabs don’t have products as wide-ranging as the company’s, it says. But not all businesses care about using open software, and big-name proprietary ERP vendors like SAP and Microsoft could overshadow Openbravo’s offerings. —E.C.
Secerno
LOCATION Oxford, England
URL www.secerno.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2003
CEO Paul Davie
EMPLOYEES 22
FUNDING $4.6 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Oxford Venture Management, Quester, Eden Ventures
Not a week goes by without a news story about some sensitive database getting compromised, from the Veteran’s Administration to credit card companies. Encryption helps, but doesn’t protect against authorized users. Secerno’s solution protects databases against outside hackers, as well as internal misuse, by looking at how users normally use the databases, thereby noticing and reporting anomalies. It competes against a number of companies, including Guardium, Imperva, and Protegrity. The big opportunity for the company is its product’s ability to defend Web Services architectures against security breaches. Secerno’s immediate challenge is growing its customer base so that it can widen revenues and narrow losses.
Arteris
LOCATION Guyancourt, France
URL www.arteris.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2003
CEO Charles Janac
EMPLOYEES 39
FUNDING $12.1 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Crescendo Ventures, TVM Capitals, Ventech
Arteris claims to be the first company to have a commercial Network-on-a-Chip product. Its chips are used in communications and multimedia environments and, because of their design, use only one-third to one-half of the wires of conventional semiconductor systems. This reduces wire congestion and thus extends the battery life of mobile devices. Founded by several semiconductor veterans, the startup has been granted eight patents and has 20 patents pending. Customers include STMicroelectronics and Pixelworks, but Arteris’ main challenge is developing a consistent and reliable revenue stream. —L.S.
BitRock
LOCATION Seville, Spain
URL www.bitrock.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2004
CEO Daniel Lopez Ridruejo
EMPLOYEES 14
FUNDING N/A
KEY INVESTORS Self-funded
Companies wary of using open-source applications have a friend in BitRock, which aims to make open technology easier for businesses to use. Its innovative multiplatform installation tool makes it possible for new users to be up and running with open-source software in just minutes—as opposed to days. The technology sounds good, but right now the company sells only to independent software vendors, not directly to consumers and businesses—meaning BitRock will have to radically change its business model and products in order to court small- to medium-sized businesses that are already clients of rivals like SpikeSource and OpenLogic. —E.C.
Innovative Silicon
LOCATION Lausanne, Switzerland
URL www.innovativesilicon.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2002
CEO Mark-Eric Jones
EMPLOYEES 36
FUNDING $22 million, 2 rounds
FUNDERS Austin Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, Index Ventures, Auriga Partners, Soitec Standing at $16.5 billon in 2003, IDC projects the dynamic access memory (DRAM) market to reach $24.7 billion this year. DRAMs traditionally use expensive silicon substrates, but Innovative Silicon aims to change that with its patented silicon on insulator (SOI) technology that allows for more cost-efficient production of smaller chips. SOI technology, now found in IBM’s processors in Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3, just awaits mass adoption by chip makers. Advanced Micro Devices is helping, having agreed to license the technology, but if SOI gets widely adopted, there’s little stopping big-league competitors IBM and Toshiba from churning out SOI-based DRAM chips. —A.D.
Mindquarry
LOCATION Potsdam, Germany
URL www.mindquarry.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2006
CEO Stephan Voigt
EMPLOYEES 9
FUNDING Undisclosed
KEY INVESTORS Hasso-Plattner Ventures
Mindquarry launched an open-source software package in March that allows multiple users to simultaneously edit documents or collaborate through instant messaging and email. The company has ambitious plans to compete with Microsoft’s Sharepoint Server or IBM’s Lotus Connections. Today, Mindquarry offers downloadable software under the open-source Mozilla Public License agreement, but plans to roll out a hosted version with monthly subscription fees for businesses that need to get up and running on the collaboration tools within hours, rather than days. The company operates internationally with support from a venture capital firm SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner started in 2005, but will move its headquarters from Germany to San Francisco by 2009. —L.A.S.
NexWave
LOCATION Montpellier, France
URL www.nexwave-solutions.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 1998
CEO Joep van Beurden
EMPLOYEES 36
FUNDING $15 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS ABN-Amro Capital, Elaia Partners, Wellington Partners, Yasuda Enterprise Development, NTT Finance, NIF-SMBC
NexWave helps companies decrease the time and money it takes to create new digital consumer electronics. Its software products reduce the development period of applications embedded in a device—bringing them to market up to six months faster and 50 percent cheaper. Major clients include Mitsubishi and Hitachi, and not surprisingly the company has international offices in Japan, South Korea, and China. NexWave may have gotten such accolades as inclusion on the European Tech Tour, but after nine years it has yet to offer complete solutions for devices much beyond video players and televisions. —E.C.
Njini
LOCATION Surrey, England
URL www.njini.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2003
CEO David Jones
EMPLOYEES 31
FUNDING $17 million, 3 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Accel Partners, Add Partners, Intel Partners
There are innumerable storage options, but Njini differentiates itself by taking storage a step further into orderliness. Think of a huge closet—it holds a lot, but without organization, a person’s wardrobe would be a confusing jumble of clothes. Njini’s software is not unlike shoe racks and sweater bags, automatically categorizing data and then storing files in the appropriate place. Though not exclusively focused on the telecom space, Njini’s biggest clients are Virgin Mobile and Colt Telecom. These might be impressive names, but they also underscore that Njini’s strength lies just in the United Kingdom—and that it’ll be hard to push into U.S. and global markets. —E.C.
Nuxeo
LOCATION Paris, France
URL www.nuxeo.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2000
CEO Stefane Fermigier
EMPLOYEES 35
FUNDING Self-funded
KEY INVESTORS N/A
Nuxeo markets an open-source document management system. Typical of open-source companies, Nuxeo does not sell its software, but sells services, training, and support that come with the software. The good news is that it competes against Documentum, Filenet, and Stellent—all companies that have grown through acquisition. As a result, Nuxeo markets itself as the only non-patchwork system. The bad news is that its three competitors have been acquired by larger companies—EMC, IBM, and Oracle—which makes it a lot tougher for Nuxeo to be seen or heard among the giants. But Nuxeo has been around for six years, and its open-source approach is favored by government agencies, schools, and a growing number of industries. —C.M.
Openbravo
LOCATION Pamplona, Spain
URL www.openbravo.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2001
CEO Manel Sarasa
EMPLOYEES 40
FUNDING $6.4 million, 1 round
KEY INVESTORS Sodena
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) joins together and streamlines all of a company’s processes and data into a single system, usually combining both software and hardware. Openbravo ups the ante by making its ERP software open source, meaning the products are free—with optional paid services—and can adapt to a customer’s changing needs. In addition, the software is web-based. Other open-source ERP providers like Compiere and Opentabs don’t have products as wide-ranging as the company’s, it says. But not all businesses care about using open software, and big-name proprietary ERP vendors like SAP and Microsoft could overshadow Openbravo’s offerings. —E.C.
Secerno
LOCATION Oxford, England
URL www.secerno.com
SECTOR Computing
FOUNDED 2003
CEO Paul Davie
EMPLOYEES 22
FUNDING $4.6 million, 2 rounds
KEY INVESTORS Oxford Venture Management, Quester, Eden Ventures
Not a week goes by without a news story about some sensitive database getting compromised, from the Veteran’s Administration to credit card companies. Encryption helps, but doesn’t protect against authorized users. Secerno’s solution protects databases against outside hackers, as well as internal misuse, by looking at how users normally use the databases, thereby noticing and reporting anomalies. It competes against a number of companies, including Guardium, Imperva, and Protegrity. The big opportunity for the company is its product’s ability to defend Web Services architectures against security breaches. Secerno’s immediate challenge is growing its customer base so that it can widen revenues and narrow losses.
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