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Pontis Secures $19.65 Million in Equity Financing Led by Norwest Venture PartnersGLIL YAM, Israel --(Business Wire)-- Pontis Ltd, a developer of software marketing systems for Communication Service Providers (CSPs), today announced that it has secured a total of $19,650,000 in equity financing. Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) led the funding round, which included investments from current shareholders Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Evergreen Venture Partners. As a part of the investment, Dror Nahumi, partner at NVP, will join Pontis' board of directors. The Pontis Marketing Delivery Platform (MDP™) for mobile, TV and fixed line operators is the only real time fulfilment and execution system for personalized and contextual marketing offers across platforms and channels. The Pontis solution has been proven to increase sales considerably, allowing Pontis to secure deals with a growing number of tier one operators including Vodafone, Telefonica and T-Mobile. "Pontis proved the ability of its real time software to stimulate sales and dramatically increasing service providers ARPU. We are extremely impressed with the progress and success Pontis has experienced recently with tier one customers and partners supporting pre-paid, VOD and VAS services," said Dror Nahumi, NVP. "Pontis has established itself as the leader in the emerging category of marketing execution solutions, which allow operators to deliver a contextual and personalized services buying experience to millions of customers worldwide." "We are thrilled that Norwest Venture Partners, together with our current shareholders, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Evergreen Venture Partners, has chosen to invest in Pontis," commented Michael Kerbis, Pontis CEO. "Raising such a significant round of funding in this current economic climate from one of the world's leading venture capital groups, is a testimonial for the Pontis team and the value that the Pontis solution provides to its customers. The funding will enable us to further expand our customer base and technology development across the mobile, TV and fixed line platforms." About Pontis Pontis is a leading provider of software marketing systems for Communication Service Providers worldwide. The company's mission is to empower Communication Service Providers marketers to provide customers with the optimal product offering and purchasing experience. For more information about Pontis, please visit us at www.pontis.com. About Norwest Venture Partners Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture capital firm that has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 47 years. NVP focuses on investments in information technology including: mobile, software, services, enterprise and communications systems, Internet, media and consumer and semiconductor/components. The firm currently manages more than $2.5 billion in venture capital. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, Mumbai and Bangalore. NVP has funded over 450 companies in the U.S. since inception, as well as several investments in India, Israel and China and more than 20 cross border companies. Some of the firm's recent investments and transactions include Adventity, Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), Clairmail, deCarta, Jigsaw, KACE, mBlox, Mozes, Omneon, Open-Silicon (acquired by Unicorn Investment Bank), Persistent Systems, Qumranet (acquired by Red Hat), Rackspace (NYSE: RAX), SideStep (acquired by Kayak), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance), Veraz Networks, Veveo, Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola) Yatra, and Yipes (acquired by Reliance/Flag Telecom). NVP has also funded such market leaders as Actel Corporation, Cerent (acquired by Cisco Systems), Documentum, Extreme Networks, Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), PeopleSoft and Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM). For more information, please visit www.nvp.com. About Sequoia Capital Since 1972, Sequoia Capital has provided startup venture capital for people who have the creative capacity to turn ideas into companies. As the "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs", Sequoia Capital's partners have worked with innovating companies such as Cisco Systems, Yahoo!, Google, PayPal (eBay), Apple Computer and Oracle. The companies funded by Sequoia Capital now account for about 10 percent of the value of NASDAQ. For more information, please visit: www.sequoiacap.com. About Accel Partners Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long legacy of success and innovation in the venture capital business. The firm is dedicated to partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs to build world-class Internet, software and infrastructure companies. Accel Partners has more than $4bn under management from its offices in Palo Alto, London and China, and its portfolio companies have completed IPOs that have created well over $150 billion in market capitalization. Representative current and former investments include Brightcove, Comscore, Double Fusion, Facebook, Foundry Networks, Glam, Macromedia, RealNetworks, Redback, UUNet, Veritas, and Walmart.com. For more information, please visit: www.accel.com. About Evergreen Venture Partners Evergreen Venture Partners was established in 1987 as one of Israel's first venture capital firms. Evergreen invests in early-stage Israeli and Israel-related companies in the following fields: software, internet & media, communications and healthcare. Evergreen's $650 million of venture capital funds under management represents one of the largest portfolios in Israel with investments in over 120 technology start-ups. Evergreen has exited successfully 35 portfolio companies through IPOs and acquisitions. Some of these companies include Traiana, Colbar, Identify, BigBand, P-Cube, Actona, Backweb, Exalink, Radvision and Radware. Evergreen is currently investing from its fifth generation fund, Evergreen V, a $200M fund. For more information, please visit www.evergreen.co.il |
