Appature Announces $3.5m Investment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
For more information, contact:
Kabir Shahani, CEO
206-493-5450
kabir@appatureinc.com
Appature announces $3.5M investment, led by Ignition Partners and Madrona Venture Group
December 7, 2009, Seattle, WA — Appature, Inc., the fastest-growing provider of enterprise marketing software for healthcare companies, today announced that it has secured $3.5M in venture capital funding. The Series A round was co-led by Ignition Partners and Madrona Venture Group.
Founded in 2007, the company provides a full-solution enterprise marketing platform for large healthcare organizations. The Appature product increases marketing efficiencies and helps its users understand the effectiveness of each marketing dollar spent. Despite a difficult economic climate, Appature is profitable and has attracted some of the nation’s leading pharmaceutical and medical device companies as early customers. Its healthcare IT solution now serves as a linchpin for these companies’ marketing efforts.
“It’s rare to find a company that has built a profitable business without outside capital, more rare is one that has acquired the quality of customers Appature currently serves,” said Richard Fade, a partner at Ignition Partners. “Appature’s products help their customers understand their marketing investments and make them more effective. The opportunity for both the company and for those who will adopt their solution is very significant.”
This round of funding will enable Appature to boost sales and marketing efforts to build an even broader client base. It also will allow Appature to invest in product advancements to provide a broader customer experience. Appature’s platform enables healthcare marketers to mine richer, more relevant data, take more meaningful action on the findings and more effectively measure the outcomes of their actions.
“Appature represents so much of what we look for in a great company — firms that are customer driven, have built a great product and have the tenacity and potential to be major players in the market,” said Tim Porter, a partner at Madrona Venture Group. “Kabir and Chris are talented entrepreneurs who have built a great team. We look forward to working alongside them to get this breakthrough solution in the hands of as many customers as possible.”
In the three years since inception, Appature has earned a variety of accolades, including recognition as Microsoft’s “Startup of the Day” and as a nominee in two categories for the Seattle 2.0 Awards: “Best Boot-Strapped Start Up” and “Best Start Up Technologist” for co-founder and CTO Christopher Hahn. In addition, Appature CEO Kabir Shahani was named one of BusinessWeek’s “Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs” for 2009.
“As a profitable company, it’s important for us to continue to watch our margins and not sacrifice the quality of the customer experience for the sake of growth,” Shahani said. “Our investors are providing us with the support and infrastructure to get our solution in the hands of more organizations that could benefit from it, and that’s what makes this partnership very exciting.”
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About Appature
Appature (www.appatureinc.com) is a seasoned technology provider specializing in enterprise marketing software. Appature believes that enterprise-grade software should be robust, responsive and intuitive, so everyone who uses it can do so effectively. This is encompassed in their mission of delivering “surprisingly simple®®” technology that helps customers easily consolidate information, take action and gain deeper customer insight. Appature’s products allow marketers to reach customers more effectively, create cross-channel opportunities and increase marketing ROI.
About Madrona Venture Group
Madrona Venture Group (www.madrona.com) has been investing in early-stage technology companies in the Pacific Northwest since 1995 and has been privileged to play a role in some of the region's most successful technology ventures. The firm invests across the information technology spectrum, including consumer Internet, commercial software and services, digital media and advertising, networking and infrastructure, and wireless. Madrona currently manages nearly $700 million and was an early investor in companies such as Amazon.com, Isilon Systems, World Wide Packets, iConclude, Farecast.com and ShareBuilder.
About Ignition Partners
Ignition Partners (www.ignitionpartners.com) is a premier private investment group with offices in Bellevue, Wash., and Shanghai, China. Ignition Partners' affiliated family of funds includes Ignition Ventures and Ignition Growth Capital in the U.S. and Qiming Ventures in China. The investment group's three categories of funds — early stage venture, growth capital and China ventures — brings together an unparalleled combination of domain focus, functional expertise and global operational experience with partners from leadership positions at Microsoft, McCaw Cellular Communications, AT&T Wireless, Cisco, Starbucks and other industry leaders.