Despite economic climate, OpTier raises $63 million in funding
Filed under: BTM, Information Technology, Performance Management, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Uncategorized, VC, virtualization
Last week, OpTier, an Israeli business transaction management software company, announced that it had successfully raised $63 million in its latest round of funding to focus on its product line and market expansion. While $63 million in funds raised is impressive at any time, it is especially impressive now given the unstable global economy and the impact it is likely to have on Israel’s economy in the next year.
This was fourth-round funding though, so presumably OpTier is established enough and has a viable enough plan to improve its product and expand its market share that investing such an amount is much less of a gamble for investors compared to an investment of $4-7 million in a seed or early stage startup seeking funding.
OpTier’s product, CoreFirst, does seem to be a winner. Written off in its first few years as unlikely to stand a chance against competition from companies such as BMC Software, Computer Associates, HP, IBM and Mercury Interactive, OpTier has become one of the leaders with CoreFirst being identified by Forrester Research as bringing Business Transaction Management (BTM) to Business Service Management (BSM).
According to the company website,
“Based on unique Active Context Tracking™ (ACT) technology, our CoreFirst® product assures that business transactions flow smoothly within IT applications and infrastructure, without bottlenecks or outages, for improved end-user experience and reduced cost.”
The latest version of CoreFirst, CoreFirst 3.0, was unveiled earlier this month and promises enterprises the ability to deploy it in even the most complex of IT environments to link business and IT so that transactions flow smoothly through the IT infrastructure, ensuring that services remain uninterrupted and business goals are met. CoreFirst 3.0 now also supports the Microsoft Application Framework (.Net).
Some of its features include:
- “Built-in real time ability to continually benchmark business transactions performance across tiers and provide alerts when SLAs are breached.
- Full recording of every business transaction executed in any system it monitors, so you can easily track every transaction’s execution throughout customer facing systems, backend supporting systems, and shared services environments, pointing out how much time was spent at each stop and how many resources were consumed.”
Plans for this round of funding were first announced in May shortly after B-hives was acquired by VMWare and OpTier noted that the market is consolidating. Whether or not the economy will impact OpTier’s vision or abilities for acquisitions should be seen probably in the next few months.
Company Facts
Founded in 2002.
Headquartered in New York. R&D in Ramat Gan, Israel.
Dov Gal, Co-founder, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
Amir Alon, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.
Four co-founders in total.
Product: CoreFirst
Website: www.optier.com
16 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of September 21, 2008
Filed under: Business Intelligence, Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Information Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions, VC
There may be trouble lurking around the corner for Israel’s economy given the current instability of the global economy, but it hasn’t entirely stopped investments being made in Israeli companies and probably won’t. During the week of September 21, 2008, there were announcements of funds being raised in several sectors of Israel’s hit-tech industry, with the most impressive one by far being the $63M in fourth round funding that business transaction software provider, OpTier raised. (Of course, as a fourth round, that indicates the company is fairly established so presumably much less a gamble than any seed and early stage startups.) Some other headlines from Israel include Kfar Saba became the first city in Israel to go green, Commtouch received an award for its messaging security technology and HP has chosen the Technion as a research partner. For more on these and the rest of the 16 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of September 21, 2008, check the list below.
Cleantech
1. Kfar Saba becomes first city to go green
2. 21Ventures and Quercus Trust award grant to support solar research at Weizmann Institute
Investments and M&A
3. InstallFree Secures $8.5 Million in VC Funding
4. Adap.tv Lands $13M in Venture Funding
5. Norwest Venture Partners sets it sights on Israel with new appointment
6. OpTier raises $63 million in funding
Information Technology
7. SiSense Launches Pricing and General Availability of Its Prism Business Intelligence Software
8. Jacada Announces General Availability of Jacada® WorkSpace 5.0
10. Point-of-Sale Advertising Goes High Tech
Miscellaneous
11. Local economy set to grow 4.5%
12. Israeli Internet Companies Seek Partners in Atlanta
13. How to Expand into the U.S. Market
14. Hi-tech salaries drop as inflation heats up
15. New Worlds: Technion chosen as HP research partner
16. Startup Helps Find What You Weren’t Looking for (SemantiNet)
About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.
30 Israel-related technology headlines from May 2008 (special Israel at 60 edition)
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Information Technology, Internet Security, Telecomunications, VC
What newsworthy events came from Israel in May? Enough for a special May headline sum up. The biggest stories of the month, of course, were the Presidential Conference, Project Better Place’s unveiling its electric car prototype and VMware’s acquisition of B-hive Networks. Other exciting news that received less international coverage, but are also noteworthy, included the Israel Venture Association’s Annual Hi-Tech Conference and that OpTier, a business service management software provider, is currently raising funds to make an acquisition. For these stories and the rest of the major headlines from May 2008 check out the 30 Israel-related technology headlines below:
Israel at 60
Israel Presidential Conference
Yahoo’s Susan Decker: Content is king
Remarks by President Bush, President Peres of Israel and Prime Minister Olmert of Israel
Israel at 60: 10 historic quotes and 1 joke
Google co-founder lauds Israeli innovation in tech, environment
Cleantech
Project Better Place presents electric car prototype
Techwatch: Solel closes second major contract
N-trig and Its Supply Chain Go “Green” to Help Protect the Environment
Information Technology
Shunra Software Announces New Chief Technology Officer as Company Expands Application Performance and Analysis Portfolio
Voltaire and LSI to Cross-Certify InfiniBand Storage Products
Sicap and Red Bend Sign Agreement for Interoperable Device Management
Aternity Named as 2008 American Business Awards Finalist
XMPie Steps Up Web-Enabled Automation with Enhanced uStore
Information Security
Commtouch and Scalix Collaboration Brings Real Time Messaging
Security to Linux-based E-mail Servers
Zones to Resell Applicure Web Application Firewall Technology
Check Point Pushes Virtualized Browser Protection
Info Security Products Guide Names Safend Winner of the 2008 Best
Deployment Scenario Awards
Investments and M&A
Wanaka closes first fund at $50 million
Lightspeed Venture Partners Closes $800 Million Fund VIII
BTM co OpTier raising funds for acquisition
Telecommunications
MobileMax in cellular-to-VoIP deal
modu in talks on handset launch
Israeli company aims to speed up the Internet
Miscellaneous
Israel Venture Association’s Annual Hi-Tech
Conference 2008 Hits the Road
Touchwall: Microsoft’s Inexpensive Wall-Based Multi-Touch Interface
High Tech Puts Israel in the Black
Israel’s Garage Geeks Gather to Hear Google’s Brin
Copenda’s New Features Ease Communication
Across Social Networking and Dating Sites
(Picture of me at the 2008 Presidential Conference playing with a modu – one of the world’s smallest cell phones. Thanks Oren for taking this! Get to know Oren and modu better by checking out the modu blog.)
About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership
Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or
inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be
directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.
Company in Focus: Gemini Israel Funds
News
Last week, Gemini Israel Funds made the news as one of several investors who contributed to the new Israeli solar-energy start up that raised $9 million in funding, XJet, Ltd (see my post). For Gemini Israel Funds, the investment marks the second cleantech start up that it has added to its portfolio since August and signifies a new importance the company is putting on the future of cleantech.
Company Overview
Gemini Israel Funds was the first Israeli VC fund to be established from the Israeli government’s Yozma program in 1993 after Israel high-tech and VC pioneer, Ed Mlavsky, agreed to manage the fund. According to Gemini’s website, over the years, Gemini has focused on seed and early fund investments in areas of Communications such as Wireless Technologies, Enterprise Software, Internet, Consumer Electronics and Semiconductors, investing in companies such as RADLive, WeFi, Inc, IXI Mobile Inc, Adap.TV, Triana Inc, and OpTier Inc. Gemini has offices in Israel and Silicon Valley and manages funds totaling $550 million.
Analysis: Sun only beginning to shine on investing in Israel’s cleantech sector
While cleantech still isn’t a top priority for Gemini (it currently only has two cleantech companies in its portfolio), its recent cleantech investments have placed Gemini as a serious leader in cleantech venture capital community in Israel — an area that is picking up steam with the coverage that companies such as XJet, Ltd and Project Better Place have been getting lately and the latest news that Al Gore has become a partner in the VC firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byerswill (KPCB) and will help the company find and invest in start-ups globally (including Israel).
Despite any potential future interest by KPCB, as more Israeli and international VC firms become active in Israel cleantech in the future, Gemini is poised to be little affected given its approach and its founding partner and Chairman, Ed Mlavsky.
According to a company self-description, “Gemini’s key contributions include an ability to make daring investment decisions and the capability to utilize past operational experience in assisting portfolio companies.” The firm’s willingness and ability to make “daring investment decisions,” is a direct influence of Mlavsky.
Since his days at Tyco in the 1960s, Mlavsky has always embraced new technologies and has taken risks with them. While at Tyco (which he co-founded) he initiated the development and commercialization of a “novel photovoltaic technology” that he later oversaw as Executive Vice President of joint-venture Mobil Tyco Solar Energy Corporation. Risks such as that led Tyco to become the $40 billion company that it is today (and Gemini to have $550 million in funds). As such, it can be assumed that his attitude is what has sparked Gemini’s early entrance into cleantech. Additionally, his experience (and solar-energy expertise) fulfills Gemini’s “capability to utilize past operational experience in assisting portfolio companies” in cleantech, which, presumably, also gives the company a bit of a one up in the experience department over other Israeli VC firms entering cleantech.
However, although the cleantech industry is poised for great success, it is still a fledgling area and requires many obstacles to be lifted before any company will become a major global player and give Gemini and other VC firms the returns that they expect. Analysts predict that since this is a new area, big payoffs and mature cleantech startups aren’t likely for several years.
This may take even longer as it is very unlikely that in the near future any cleantech start-up will be able to expand its market-share significantly in major markets such as the United States and China due to a lack of government incentives and payoffs in the former, and lax regulations in the latter. As both governments become increasingly pressured to make these changes, though, and even more opportunities open up, Gemini’s business acumen should ensure that its cleantech companies will meet its expectations and eventually provide it with a nice ROI.
Additional Resources
Adap.tv
Overview of Gemini
Opportunities in Television
OpTier
Company Blogs
Ed Mlavsky: GOLB
Tali Aben
Daniel Cohen
Sagi Rubin
Ouriel Ohayon
Companies in Brief: Week of October 21 News
This past week saw big announcements from MySpace and Facebook, the U.S. market continuing to struggle and OpTier named Globes Israeli Start-up of the Year. How this will all affect technology and investments in Israel will be essential to follow in the next few months for innovations. In the meantime, review the news related to technology in Israel in this week’s Israel Innovation Companies in Brief: Week of October 21 slideshow.
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