Author: Angela Sormani

Looker Data Sciences has launched its new query-based business intelligence software platform, Looker, with $2 million in funding. The financing was led by First Round Capital and PivotNorth Capital.

PRESS RELEASE

Looker Data Sciences, Inc., announced today the launch of their new query-based Business Intelligence software platform, Looker, with $2M in funding led by First Round Capital and PivotNorth Capital. Lloyd Tabb, a programming languages innovator, Netscape browser war veteran and crowdsourcing pioneer founded Looker.

“The Looker BI Platform™ is the first solution to simplify the advanced functionality of traditional Business Intelligence once available only to Fortune 500 companies into a single application that can be easily accessed by all,” said Lloyd Tabb, Founder and CEO of Looker.

The Looker BI Platform is a Business Intelligence tool built for extending data discovery functionality to everyone in the organization to make decisions based on real-time facts. Looker has created a new approach to Business Intelligence called query-based BI. Query-based BI empowers users to be curious, and perform deep analytics across their organization’s entire set of data. From the CEO to the Senior Data Analyst to an Account Manager, everyone can and should use Looker. On the backend, Looker’s approach uses a new modeling language, LookML, which enhances SQL for analytics so end-users can perform powerful analytics without needing to know how a query is written.

“Previous BI tools are like trying to navigate SQL with a compass and sextant – Looker is the GPS,” continued Mr. Tabb. “We’re huge believers in the power of SQL for analytics, but current Business Intelligence tools don’t empower it to be great. They are either too focused on static or parameterized dashboards, or are complex and laborious, requiring an army of engineers to implement.”

While operating in stealth mode over much of 2012, Looker has signed more than twenty clients who use its Business Intelligence platform to drive better analytics and improve business operations; one such customer is Simply Hired.

“As one of the world’s largest job search engines, Simply Hired houses a tremendous volume of data. Looker provides us with the ability to access this data across business functions – from sales to engineering to customer engagement,” said Suresh ‘DP’ Duddi, Vice President of Engineering for Simply Hired. “The Looker BI Platform allows our entire organization to easily dig deep into our data and collaborate on insights that are actionable and critical to our success.”

Looker is focused on delivering a data discovery platform that is active, agile, and collaborative. This means that company data is available to all employees at the moment of decision, that insights can occur through curiosity and exploration rather than a passive dashboard experience, and all insights reside in a central repository, making cross-functional data accessible to the entire organization via a single tool.

About Looker

Looker is a Business Intelligence software company that focuses on the intersection of economics and engineering, helping customers use data to achieve success. Looker is enabling true discovery-driven businesses, one customer at a time. Looker was founded by Lloyd Tabb, Principal Engineer at Netscape and former CTO of LiveOps. Investors in Looker include First Round Capital and PivotNorth. The company is based in Santa Cruz, CA.

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Adcade, an NYC-based startup in the mobile advertising market, has closed over $1.5 million in seed stage funding led by ff Venture Capital. Other participants in the round include Quotidian Ventures, BHV, Great Oaks VC and a handful of angel investors.

PRESS RELEASE

Adcade, an NYC-based startup in the mobile advertising market, today announced that it has closed over $1.5 million in seed stage funding led by ff Venture Capital (http://ffvc.com/). Founded in 2012, Adcade is developing mobile advertising solutions aimed at creating a more interactive, immersive and engaging experience. The company will begin testing its first product, a new mobile/tablet premium rich media ad unit that never takes a user away from a publisher’s site, this month.

Other participants in the round include Quotidian Ventures, BHV, Great Oaks VC and a handful of angel investors chosen for their expertise in ad tech and proven business acumen. The financing will be used to accelerate business and development of other innovative mobile ad products, including a robust self-service platform, which the company plans to launch later this year.

“The mobile ad space is primed for innovation,” said Rob Cromer, CEO, Adcade. “It’s painfully clear that desktop ads don’t translate well to mobile devices, and, as mobile continues to grow, publishers need new solutions to monetize. We have built one of the most comprehensive HTML5 Canvas frameworks to-date and, in turn, we believe our ad technology is leaps and bounds ahead of what is currently available in the market.”

“The simplicity and effectiveness of what Adcade is designing shows great potential, and the management team has done an excellent job creating a scalable product,” said John Frankel, Partner, ff Venture Capital. “We think they are positioning themselves to disrupt a big market.”

About Adcade

Adcade aims to bring simplicity, fun and creativity to mobile advertising through engaging, innovative ad units and platforms. Adcade provides publishers with new ways to monetize content, advertisers with new means of cross-platform engagement, and users with intuitive, interactive mobile products. Based in New York City, Adcade was founded in 2012 by CEO Rob Cromer (formerly with Barclay’s Capital); CTO Buzz Wiggins (formerly with Google Inc. Ad Innovations); and COO Rob Prentice (formerly with Perry Ellis).

Media Contact:
Karl Pawlewicz
Director of Communications, Adcade
[email protected]
(347) 775.9915
@Adcade

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Handshakez has closed $3.6 million in venture capital financing. The Series A round was led by Austin Ventures with additional investment by First Round Capital, FLOODGATE, CrunchFund, Valhalla Partners and Thinktiv.

PRESS RELEASE

Handshakez today announced that it has closed $3.6 million in venture capital financing. The Series A round was led by Austin Ventures with additional investment by First Round Capital, FLOODGATE, CrunchFund, Valhalla Partners and Thinktiv. Handshakez uniquely brings business relationships out of email and into private, collaborative spaces that foster transparency and engagement — and debuts a new class of analytics to predict and drive customer success. Led by Jason Wesbecher, previously VP of Strategic Accounts at Jive Software; Scott Brittain, previously VP Engineering at Solarwinds; and Michael Osborne, previously Chief Revenue Officer at Bazaarvoice, the company is launching with 50 clients live on its collaboration and analytics platform.
“The act of shaking hands is as old as commerce itself — and signals engagement, trust and balance between two people,” said Handshakez co-founder and CEO Jason Wesbecher. “This engagement has been under enormous strain in the last two decades by CRM technologies that have not kept up with the needs of the modern customer. The term CRM itself is wildly out of touch: customers don’t want to be managed, they want to be engaged. Handshakez is solving this today by humanizing and simplifying front end processes to put the customer at the center of the relationship.”
Modernizing the Enterprise
The simultaneous emergence of mobile, social, cloud and big data trends are re-shaping the enterprise and disrupting traditional systems of record. For B2B sales teams, where selling involves a complex maze of people and processes, these systems have not only failed to effectively engage customers, they have created a culture of one-to-one email and time consuming data entry. Handshakez transforms the enterprise front office and leapfrogs systems of record with a collaborative approach that engages clients directly and opens up new vistas for measurement.
“There is a tremendous opportunity to take customer relationships out of email and bring new levels of collaboration to an age old sales process,” said Thomas Ball, General Partner at Austin Ventures. “Successful enterprise companies like Jive and Yammer have proven that engagement, not record keeping, is the future. Handshakez has what it takes to build an industry-leading company in this space: seasoned leadership, an insider’s understanding of the market, and the vision to re-shape front-end enterprise applications around the customer.”
Collaboration and Analytics Platform Delivers Results
The HandShakez collaboration and analytics platform reaches across the enterprise firewall to create private, user-friendly spaces that encourage participation, facilitate interaction and deliver measurable insight into the engagement. Clients using HandShakez can now go far beyond traditional CRM workflows or document sharing solutions to foster engagement and transparency for business relationships with:
Curated Rich Media Assets: Presentations, financial models, whitepapers, videos and news items are all easily uploaded and organized.
Highly Social Interactions: Activity streams, @mentions, comments, polls, and LinkedIn integration provide a delightful, collaborative experience.
Seamless Integration: Pre-built integration with popular enterprise tools including Microsoft Outlook and Salesforce.com to bring new intelligence into traditional reporting.
Intuitive, Actionable Analytics: Behind the scenes, complex algorithms determine levels of engagement, which is presented as a user-friendly room temperature.
Handshakez is already delivering measurable success to nearly 50 customers live on its collaboration and analytics platform. Results include:
Corel, one of the largest software companies in the world with 100 million users, grew deal sizes by 45% with Handshakez. “Selling to the enterprise can be really complex and expensive. Most CRM tools, as it turns out, are focused more on the vendor than the customer. Handshakez has changed that for us in a special way. This has been a huge win for our customers.” – Patrick Nichols, GM of Corel
Punchh, a social loyalty platform for restaurants, increased sales productivity by 20% with Handshakez. “With Handshakez, our sales team can cut roughly ten hours each week of the tedious administrative tasks of traditional CRM. That time savings is a huge competitive advantage.” – Gregg Carman, SVP Sales for Punchh
AlterPoint, a network governance provider, boosted renewal rates by 10% with Handshakez. “We manage 1,000 renewals each year. Before Handshakez, we largely used intuition to determine likeliness of renewal. Now, we not only have an objective way to measure the temperature of each client, but we know who is a good upsell candidate.” – Danielle Royston, CEO of AlterPoint
“The CRM system alone needs to serve more as a means rather than an end goal of salesforce automation,” said Peter Ostrow, VP of Sales Effectiveness at Aberdeen Group. “Using a private showroom to regularly add relevant business content rather than just email effectively allows a salesperson to demonstrate sincerity, expertise, and the impression that they actually care about their customer’s eventual success.”
About Handshakez
Handshakez is pioneering a new class of front end enterprise applications built around the customer. Led by a team of enterprise software veterans, Handshakez offers a collaboration and analytics platform that brings business relationships out of email and into private collaborative spaces, fostering engagement and innovating new analytics to predict and drive customer success. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is privately held with funding from Austin Ventures, First Round Capital, FLOODGATE, CrunchFund, Valhalla Partners and Thinktiv.

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CoBe Capital has hired Dr. Knuth Schmidt as a director of operations for DACH. CoBe Capital is a global private investment firm focused on the acquisition and management of non-core business units from large corporations.

PRESS RELEASE

CoBe Capital, a global private investment firm focused on the acquisition and management of non-core business units from large corporations, is pleased to announce the hiring of Dr. Knuth Schmidt as a Director of Operations for DACH.
An engineer by training, Dr. Knuth Schmidt has far reaching international business experience from his tenure as the General Manager of a diverse set of manufacturing companies from across the DACH region – Dynamit Nobel Kunstsstoff, Lista AG , Fridola Tech and TCG-Holding. Dr. Schmidt draws on his engineering and operations experience at companies including Daimler and Siemens, to bring a unique perspective on achieving growth and profitability at industrial manufacturers through strategic management, corporate development, international sales expansion, cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
Dr. Schmidt received his Diplom Ingenieur degree at the RWTH-Aachen and earned his Dr. Ingenieur title at the Forschungszentrum Jülich, Institute for Reactor Materials. He also earned a Diplom Wirtschaftsingenieur at the Hochschule für Berufstätige (AKAD) and further pursued advanced studies through Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. He is fluent in English and German and conversant in French and Spanish.
“We welcome Knuth to our family and believe he brings tremendous strengths to our investment model as we continue to build on our track record of successful turnaround of industrial operations in Europe,” said Neal Cohen, Founder and Managing Director of CoBe Capital.
About CoBe Capital
CoBe Capital, a global private investment firm with a permanent capital base, specializes in the acquisition and operation of non-core and underperforming business units in the Americas and Europe from leading global corporations. CoBe Capital owns and operates a diversified portfolio of companies and strives to achieve long-term growth based on lean management and continuous improvement business philosophies. CoBe Capital was founded by Neal Cohen in 1994.
Contact

Jordan Garner
Tel. +1 (212) 338-0235 x1102
Email [email protected]

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BB&T Capital Partners has sold The Cline Company to Rexnord Corporation. The Cline Company, headquartered in Greenville, SC is a provider of aftermarket power transmission services to the pulp and paper, steel and other industries.

PRESS RELEASE

BB&T Capital Partners (“BBTCP”) is pleased to announce the successful divestiture of The Cline Company (“Cline”) to Rexnord Corporation (NYSE:RXN).
About The Cline Company:
The Cline Company, headquartered in Greenville, SC is a premium, high quality provider of aftermarket power transmission services to the pulp and paper, steel and other industries. Cline specializes in providing full-service power transmission solutions and has a high degree of technical expertise in advising clients in the inspection, repair, replacement or maintenance of mission critical components such as industrial drive shafts, clutches and brakes that are used in production equipment. Cline offers its customers a wide breadth of critical services, including inspection, repair, replacement and spare parts, as well as predictive and preventative maintenance and other on-site technical field services.
About Rexnord Corporation:
Rexnord Corporation is a leading worldwide industrial company comprised of two strategic platforms: Process & Motion Control and Water Management. Within its platforms, Rexnord serves a diverse array of growing, global end markets with the broadest, most reliable product portfolios and trusted brands in its industries, backed by thousands of associates that share a common goal: providing superior customer satisfaction. Cline will reside in Process & Motion Control where Rexnord designs, manufactures, markets and services specified, highly engineered mechanical components used within complex systems where its customers’ reliability requirements and the cost of failure or downtime is extremely high.

About BB&T Capital Partners
BB&T Capital Partners (www.bbtcp.com) manages committed capital across three fund strategies, all of which are focused on the middle market. The firm makes direct equity investments in control transactions of privately-held companies; provides subordinated debt or mezzanine capital in support of transactions led by financial sponsors and others; and invests in other private equity funds. Since 1998, BBTCP has invested in over 45 privately-held, middle-market companies in a variety of industries, providing patient capital to facilitate buyout, acquisition, growth and recapitalization transactions. BBTCP’s investing strategy focuses on a partnership approach with management with a common goal of long-term value creation.
For additional information on this transaction, please contact Brent Kulman at 336-733-0354 or [email protected].

BB&T Capital Partners
101 N. Cherry St.
Suite 700
Winston-Salem, NC 27101-4019

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KRG Capital Partners‘ portfolio company Fort Dearborn Company has completed the acquisition of FetterGroup’s paint & coating labels business. KRG made its initial investment in Fort Dearborn Company in August 2010 and the acquisition of FetterGroup’s paint & coatings label business represents the 179th investment for KRG since its inception. Fort Dearborn Company is a supplier of cut and stack, pressure sensitive, roll-fed and shrink sleeve labels.

PRESS RELEASE

KRG Capital Partners (KRG) announces that one of its Fund IV platform companies, Fort Dearborn Company, a leading supplier of cut & stack, pressure sensitive, roll-fed and shrink sleeve labels, has completed the acquisition of FetterGroup’s paint & coating labels business. KRG made its initial investment in Fort Dearborn Company in August 2010 and the acquisition of FetterGroup’s paint & coatings label business represents the 179th investment for KRG since its inception.

About Fort Dearborn Company: Fort Dearborn Company is a leading supplier of high-impact decorative labels for the beverage, food, household products, nutraceutical, paint and coatings, personal care, private label/retail and spirits markets. The company provides cut & stack, pressure sensitive, roll-fed and shrink sleeve labels across multiple print technologies including digital, flexographic, offset lithographic and rotogravure. Headquartered in Illinois, the company has ten operating divisions in North America, employing nearly 1,200 associates.

About KRG Capital Partners: Founded in 1996, KRG is a Denver-based private equity buyout firm with $4.4 billion of cumulative capital either deployed or available for future investment, which includes approximately $1.1 billion deployed since inception by institutional equity co-investors. The firm seeks investment opportunities for its partners where KRG can work in concert with owners and operating managers who are committed to expanding their companies and becoming industry leaders. The result is a partnership that focuses on creating a significantly larger enterprise through a combination of internal growth and complementary add-on acquisitions. Since inception, KRG has invested in 45 platform companies and has completed 134 add-on acquisitions for those platforms.

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TDBBS, a Richmond, VA-based manufacturer and marketer of all natural dog treats and chews, has completed a minority investment by Culbro, a family-controlled private equity firm based in New York City. Terms were not disclosed.

PRESS RELEASE

TDBBS, LLC, a Richmond, VA-based manufacturer and marketer of all natural
dog treats and chews, announced the completion of a minority investment by Culbro, LLC, a family-controlled
private equity firm based in New York City. The transaction closed on February 28, 2013; terms were not
disclosed.
Founded by Avrum and Lauren Elmakis in 2007, TDBBS has achieved extraordinary growth since inception and
was ranked #384 in Inc. Magazine’s 2012 “Inc. 500” ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.
TDBBS specializes in bully sticks, elk antlers, and other natural, high protein dog chews that are highly digestible
and are becoming increasingly popular among dog owners across the U.S. and abroad. In addition to bully sticks,
the company also offers a wide variety of complementary all natural dog treats and chews to consumers through its
proprietary ecommerce sites and also through other retail channels.
Culbro, LLC was formed in 2005 as the private equity investment vehicle of the Cullman family and is presently
managed by members of that family. Among numerous successful businesses it has owned, the Cullman family
owned and operated General Cigar Holdings, Inc., the largest premium cigar company in the U.S. with prestigious
brands such as Macanudo and Partagas, for over forty years before selling the company in 2005. The principals of
Culbro have significant operating and investing experience across a number of industries, with a particular focus on
consumer products companies.
Avrum Elmakis, Founder and CEO of TDBBS, said, “I am very excited to partner with Culbro. The knowledge
and first-hand experience that the Culbro team has through its development of a world-class consumer products
company like General Cigar will be invaluable to TDBBS as we seek to capitalize on the many exciting growth
opportunities in the pet industry. This transaction will enable TDBBS to accelerate our growth at an even greater
pace due to the resources, guidance and access to capital that Culbro brings.”
“In a relatively short time span TDBBS has established itself as a leader in the dynamic pet products industry by
providing pet owners with innovative products that are all natural, great-tasting and healthy for their pets,” said
Edgar Cullman, Jr., Managing Member of Culbro, “We are looking forward to working with Avrum and the rest of
the TDBBS team to continue to build upon their success to date.”
David Danziger, Managing Member of Culbro, said, “Avrum and his team have done an extraordinary job building
a successful business with a number of attributes that we look for when making an investment, including a strong
leadership team, loyal customer relationships and sustainable competitive advantages. The fact that TDBBS
operates in an industry that is expanding so rapidly makes this investment even more compelling for Culbro.”
Marriott & Co. acted as exclusive financial advisor to TDBBS on this transaction. Williams Mullen provided legal
advice to TDBBS, and Gunster provided legal advice to Culbro on this transaction.
Justin Marriott, Managing Director of Marriott & Co. said, “We thoroughly enjoyed working with Avrum and the
rest of the TDBBS team on this important transaction. The cultural fit between TDBBS and Culbro was evident
throughout this entire process, and I know that TDBBS is poised for great things under this new partnership.”

Added Mr. Elmakis, “I can’t thank the Marriott & Co. team enough for the amazing job they did throughout this
process. They managed an efficient and professional process to ensure that TDBBS found a private equity partner
that truly understands our unique business model.”
About TDBBS, LLC:
About Culbro, LLC:
Contacts:
Avrum Elmakis CEO – TDBBS, LLC Phone: (804) 525-7169 [email protected] www.tdbbsllc.com
David Danziger Managing Member – Culbro, LLC Phone: (646) 461-9277 [email protected] www.culbro.com
###
Headquartered in Richmond, VA, TDBBS, LLC is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium pet related
products throughout the U.S. and abroad. TDBBS provides its loyal customer base with a diverse line of unique
products in the pet industry including all natural dog treats and chews. Among its product offerings are bully
sticks, which are all natural, high protein dog treats and chews that the company markets in a variety of shapes,
sizes and varieties. TDBBS sells its products to consumers through its ecommerce sites, and it has also developed
relationships with some of the leading distributors and retailers across the U.S.
TDBBS was founded in 2007 and has achieved a triple-digit revenue growth rate since its inception. In Inc.
Magazine’s 2012 “Inc. 500” ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., TDBBS was ranked
#384.
Based in New York, NY, Culbro, LLC (www.culbro.com) is the private equity investment vehicle of the Cullman
family and is presently managed by members of that family. Culbro primarily focuses on making equity
investments of $10 to $20 million in middle market companies across a variety of sectors, including branded
consumer products, healthcare services, education products and services and other outsourced services including
information technology. The firm invests its partners’ capital and is supported by a number of allied investors who
often invest alongside it, providing for flexible investment structures and time horizons. The Managing Members
of Culbro are former operating executives who seek to partner with strong existing management teams to help their
companies grow.
The Cullman family has a rich history dating back to 1884 which includes owning and managing a number of
successful companies, including General Cigar Holdings, Inc., the largest premium cigar manufacturer and
marketer in the U.S. with prestigious brands including Macanudo and Partagas. Upon completing a sale of its
interests in General Cigar to Swedish Match AB in 2005, the Cullman family created Culbro, LLC as its private
equity investment vehicle. In addition to its U.S. operations, Culbro invests in India through its associated
company, Helix Investments

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Kofax, a provider of smart process applications has acquired Altosoft, a developer of business intelligence and analytics software. Altosoft will function as a wholly owned subsidiary of Kofax, conducting its business as usual while also enhancing Kofax’s product portfolio with near real-time process and data analytics, visualization and ETL capabilities.

PRESS RELEASE

Kofax® plc (LSE: KFX), a leading provider of smart process applications for the business critical First Mile™ of customer interactions, today reported it has acquired Altosoft, Inc., a leading developer of business intelligence and analytics software. Altosoft will function as a wholly owned subsidiary of Kofax, conducting its business as usual while also enhancing Kofax’s product portfolio with near real-time process and data analytics, visualization and ETL capabilities. With this acquisition, Kofax now has all of the core capabilities necessary to provide market leading smart process applications.

“This acquisition is consistent with our stated acquisition strategy and in an adjacent area of interest that we’ve been talking about for some time now. It fundamentally allows us to provide more actionable information to our customers sooner than would otherwise be possible,” said Reynolds C. Bish, chief executive officer of Kofax. “Altosoft is a great fit with Kofax as the leadership team has prior experience in the BPM market, and the technology is an ideal complement to our existing product offerings. We’re pleased to welcome Altosoft to the Kofax family.”

Altosoft’s software provides rapid, no-coding development of near real time reporting and dashboard applications through the use of a data integration and analytics engine utilizing in-memory techniques. The software is available for both traditional on-premise deployments and as a hosted SaaS subscription offering featuring multi-tenant capabilities. It is developed using Microsoft’s .net environment and therefore consistent with and easily integrated into Kofax’s software products. Altosoft has a significant presence in the healthcare industry, and was noted in Gartner’s 2012 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms as therefore appropriate for related business use cases.

According to the Forrester Research Report, The Forrester Wave™: Business Intelligence Service Providers, Q4 2012, “Business intelligence now has a much more important role. All products and services continue to become more commoditized in our global economy. … But if there are two businesses that are marketing and selling identical products or services and one has more insight into its customers’ behavior — or even if two share the same insights but one gets that information a day sooner — that business has a much higher chance of success.”

“We look forward to new growth opportunities within Kofax’s larger direct and indirect sales channels, and being able to enhance Kofax’s smart process application solutions,” stated Scott Opitz, president and chief executive officer of Altosoft. “Our strength in business intelligence is a great fit with Kofax’s leadership in smart capture, BPM, dynamic case management and mobile applications.”

Kofax acquired all of Altosoft’s stock for $13.5 million in cash. Additional payments may be made subject to the achievement of specific annual revenue growth rates and EBITDA levels during calendar years 2013, 2014 and 2015 and certain management employment conditions.

Altosoft was a privately held company headquartered in Media, Pennsylvania with approximately 43 employees and contractors principally in the U.S. and Russia. Its unaudited financial statements for calendar year 2012 reported revenues of $3.4 million, an EBITA of $0.5 million and gross assets of $1.4 million with no material debt at closing. Kofax expects it to be EBITDA neutral during calendar year 2013 and accretive in subsequent periods. Scott Opitz, age 53, and Alex Elkin, chief technical officer and age 47, of Altosoft were its most important employees and majority shareholders, and will remain as employees.

About Kofax

Kofax® plc (LSE: KFX) is a leading provider of innovative smart capture and process automation software and solutions for the business critical First Mile of customer interactions. These begin with an organization’s Systems of Engagement, which generate real time, information intensive communications from customers, and provide a fluid bridge to their Systems of Record, which are typically large scale, rigid enterprise applications and repositories not easily adapted to more contemporary technology. Success in the First Mile can dramatically improve an organization’s customer experience and greatly reduce operating costs, thus driving increased competitiveness, growth and profitability. Kofax software and solutions provide a rapid return on investment to more than 20,000 customers in banking, insurance, government, healthcare, business process outsourcing and other markets. Kofax delivers these through its own sales and service organization, and a global network of more than 800 authorized partners in more than 75 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit kofax.com.

© 2013 Kofax, plc. “Kofax” is a registered trademark and “First Mile” is a trademark of Kofax, plc.

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Fixtures Living has announced a strategic partnership with Catterton Partners. The partnership will support the expansion of the company throughout the United States. Fixtures Living is a retail concept specializing in providing customers a tailored assortment of premium lifestyle products for the home. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

PRESS RELEASE

Fixtures Living (the “Company”), a fast growing retail concept specializing in providing customers a tailored assortment of premium lifestyle products for the home, today announced a strategic partnership with Catterton Partners, the leading consumer-focused private equity firm. The strategic partnership endorses the remarkable growth potential of Fixtures Living and is designed to support the expansion of the Company throughout the United States. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2009, Fixtures Living carries a select array of best-in-class products for indoor and outdoor living spaces — kitchens, laundry rooms, and bathrooms. Unlike typical industry showrooms, Fixtures Living stores invite consumers to enjoy a 360 degree sensory experience that ignites the imagination by implementing live kitchens and working bath fixtures (from decorative plumbing to entire Health and Wellness systems), and by recruiting and retaining a welcoming and knowledgeable staff who encourage guests to “Live Joyfully™.” The Company currently has three experiential showrooms in Southern California and plans to expand rapidly across the U.S. over the next several years, including adding two locations later this year – one in San Diego at the Westfield UTC luxury center and one in the iconic Glendale Galleria.

Chief Executive Officer Jeffery Sears and the current management team will continue to lead the Company as it expands its presence across the country. Sears, along with co-founder and Chairman Jim Stuart, will retain a significant stake in the Company.

Sears commented, “The Fixtures Living concept has created a new way for the consumer to choose lifestyle goods for the home. Our innovative approach is embraced enthusiastically by homeowners and industry professionals who appreciate the opportunity to test-drive products in an inviting and interactive setting. This fosters a connection between the visitor and the products that helps them create the types of moments they wish to share in their homes. We look forward to working with Catterton, a partner with significant experience growing similar best-in-class retailers such as Restoration Hardware. Together, we are well-equipped to capitalize on the vast opportunity we see to fill a void in the current marketplace.”

“Fixtures Living has developed a game-changing retail model,” said Scott Dahnke, Managing Partner at Catterton Partners. “By delivering a full-immersion retail experience that facilitates the relationship between consumers, trade professionals, and leading brands, the Company has succeeded in creating a retail concept that is positioned to win. This concept is unlike any other that we have seen. We are excited to partner with the talented team at Fixtures Living to help the Company realize its immense potential.”

Recently, Fixtures Living has received numerous awards and honors, including:

Listed #78 on Forbes’ annual ranking of “America’s Most Promising Companies” (2013)
Winner, “Best New Prototype or Reinvention of a Prototype” by Retail Traffic Magazine (2012)
Winner, “Store Design of the Year” (Large Format) by Retail Week Magazine (2012)
Winner, Grand Prize, “Sustainability,” from the Association for Retail Environments (2012)
Winner, Individual Element, “In-Store Communications” from the Association for Retail Environments (2012)
Winner, Outstanding Merit, “Design,” from the Association for Retail Environments (2012)
Winner, “Retail Store of the Year” (Hard-Lines 15k-25k sf category) from Chain Store Age (2012)
Winner, International Award of Merit, “Best Retail Concept” (Hard-Lines category) by the Retail Design Institute (2012)
Winner, “Best in Show Worldwide: In-Store Signage and Graphics” (2012)
LEED Silver Certification from USGBC (2012)
Appeared as cover story or featured story in the industry’s top five magazines
Valtus Capital Group acted as Valuation Advisor to Fixtures Living in connection with the transaction.

About Fixtures Living

Fixtures Living is a place for trade professionals and consumers to dream about, play with, and choose products that lead to better living. Specializing in premium lifestyle goods for the home, the store carries a hand-culled array of best-in-class brands for indoor- & outdoor-kitchens, laundry rooms and the bath, from exquisite decorative plumbing to entire Health-and-Wellness Systems. Currently in three California markets, the store will soon have a presence in the Glendale Galleria, and is poised to expand into several other major U.S. cities within the next 12 months.

About Catterton Partners

With more than $3.0 billion currently under management and a twenty-three year track record of success in building high growth companies, Catterton Partners is the leading consumer-focused private equity firm. Since its founding in 1989, Catterton has leveraged its category insight, strategic and operating skills, and network of industry contacts to establish one of the strongest private equity investment track records in the middle market. Catterton Partners invests in all major consumer segments, including Food and Beverage, Retail and Restaurants, Consumer Products and Services, Consumer Health, and Media and Marketing Services. Catterton’s investments include, among others: Restoration Hardware, Bloomin’ Brands (Outback Steakhouse, Carraba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, and Roy’s), Edible Arrangements, Cheddar’s Casual Café, Noodles & Company, Plum Organics, Frederic Fekkai, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Kettle Foods, Odwalla, and P.F. Chang’s China Bistro.

SOURCE Catterton Partners

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Praxair has acquired NuCO2 for $1.1 billion from Aurora Capital Group. NuCO2 is a provider of fountain beverage carbonation in the US with approximately 162,000 customer locations and 900 employees.

PRESS RELEASE

Praxair, Inc. PX +0.41% announced today that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of NuCO2 Inc. for $1.1 billion from Aurora Capital Group.

NuCO2 is the largest provider of fountain beverage carbonation in the United States with approximately 162,000 customer locations and 900 employees. The NuCO2 micro-bulk beverage carbonation offering is the service model of choice for customers offering fountain beverages as it is cost effective, reliable and less labor intensive.

“NuCO2 is a high-quality business that fits directly within Praxair’s strategy of building density and providing customer reliability. It will continue to operate with a focus on customer service and will benefit from Praxair’s strong competencies in distribution and productivity,” said Eduardo Menezes, executive vice president of Praxair. “Praxair will grow its beverage carbonation businesses domestically and internationally through expanded product and service offerings,” he added.

Praxair, Inc. is the largest industrial gases company in North and South America, and one of the largest worldwide, with 2012 sales of $11 billion. The company produces, sells and distributes atmospheric and process gases, and high-performance surface coatings. Praxair products, services and technologies are making our planet more productive by bringing productivity and environmental benefits to a wide variety of industries including aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, metals and others.

This document contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management’s reasonable expectations and assumptions as of the date the statements are made but involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: the performance of stock markets generally; developments in worldwide and national economies and other international events and circumstances; changes in foreign currencies and in interest rates; the cost and availability of electric power, natural gas and other raw materials; the ability to achieve price increases to offset cost increases; catastrophic events including natural disasters, epidemics and acts of war and terrorism; the ability to attract, hire, and retain qualified personnel; the impact of changes in financial accounting standards; the impact of changes in pension plan liabilities; the impact of tax, environmental, healthcare and other legislation and government regulation in jurisdictions in which the company operates; the cost and outcomes of investigations, litigation and regulatory proceedings; continued timely development and market acceptance of new products and applications; the impact of competitive products and pricing; future financial and operating performance of major customers and industries served; the impact of information technology system failures, network disruptions and breaches in data security; and the effectiveness and speed of integrating new acquisitions into the business. These risks and uncertainties may cause actual future results or circumstances to differ materially from the projections or estimates contained in the forward-looking statements. Additionally, financial projections or estimates exclude the impact of special items which the company believes are not indicative of ongoing business performance. The company assumes no obligation to update or provide revisions to any forward-looking statement in response to changing circumstances. The above listed risks and uncertainties are further described in Item 1A (Risk Factors) in the company’s Form 10-K and 10-Q reports filed with the SEC which should be reviewed carefully. Please consider the company’s forward-looking statements in light of those risks.

SOURCE: Praxair, Inc.

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Synteract, a full-service contract research organization has completed its acquisition of Harrison Clinical Research to form a new multinational business – SynteractHCR. Synteract is a portfolio company of San Francisco-based Gryphon Investors.

PRESS RELEASE

Synteract, a leading full-service contract research organization (CRO) and portfolio company of San Francisco-based Gryphon Investors, has completed its acquisition of Harrison Clinical Research (“HCR”) to form a new multinational CRO – SynteractHCR. The company will have its corporate headquarters in San Diego County. Wendel Barr will lead SynteractHCR as CEO. Dr. Francisco Harrison, formerly HCR’s chairman and founder, will remain a senior member of the executive team and become a member of the Board of Directors. The existing management stays in place, with former Synteract COO Stewart Bieler becoming president of U.S. operations and former HCR CEO Benedikt van Nieuwenhove becoming president of European operations for SynteractHCR.

The merger of the companies will make SynteractHCR a top tier, global CRO and provide additional resources and scale to support large, later phase programs:

Geographic Footprint — The combined company will have offices in 16 countries with operations in both Western and Eastern Europe, Israel and South America, as well as the U.S. In addition to its headquarters in San Diego, California, SynteractHCR’s U.S.presence will include two offices on the East coast in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and Princeton, New Jersey, reflecting coverage of three important biopharmaceutical hubs. This expanded presence will allow the company to offer strong international and regional clinical trial support to clients throughout the world. SynteractHCR also maintains a clinical in-patient unit in Germany that will help enlist and treat trial patients, as well as a clinical research training center in Belgium to assist internal and external professionals.
Longstanding Experience and Talent — SynteractHCR has exceptionally strong, full-service clinical development expertise with a staff of more than 800. Typical employee tenure at the company is greater than five years. Employees have a lower-than-average turnover rate compared to the industry.
Client Loyalty and Repeat Business — A strong tradition of customer service excellence combined with a high regard for trust and transparency are cornerstones of ongoing client relationships, resulting in a high percentage of repeat and referral business.
Reinforced Therapeutic Breadth — Both organizations have a complementary heritage of managing Phase I-IV clinical trials across multiple therapeutic areas, much of which strategically aligns with the largest areas of clinical R&D investment, including oncology, CNS, infectious disease, endocrinology, cardiovascular and respiratory.
SynteractHCR is focused on enabling and supporting the innovation and development of better therapies in healthcare. A continued directive of the new combined company will be to maintain a strong connection with emerging to midsize biopharmaceutical companies through which a consultative approach and strong clinical development expertise provide the foundation of its customer relationships.
“Our longstanding drug development expertise allows us to form a new global leader with enhanced scale and therapeutic breadth, but with the personal approach that we have always taken to working with clients,” said CEO Wendel Barr. “We will provide a continuum of service that allows us to work with clients throughout the entire development life cycle, from emerging products through post-marketing, and will bring technology efficiencies to the company that will help to take time and cost out of drug development.”

SynteractHCR is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, a San Francisco-based premier middle market private equity firm, which was the lead financial partner in the acquisition. Fairmount Partners provided financial advice to Synteract, while KPMG International provided financial advice to HCR. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The new company will unveil its new brand identity and messaging at the DIA EuroMeeting in Amsterdam, from March 4-6, 2013, in booth 616. In addition, Andrei Kravchenko, MD, PhD, Head of Office, Ukraine, will participate as session chair on Tuesday, March 5th at 2-3:30 p.m. CET on “Enhancing Clinical Research Effectiveness.”

About SynteractHCR SynteractHCR is a full-service contract research organization with a successful two-decade track record supporting biotechnology, medical device and pharmaceutical companies in all phases of clinical development. With its “Shared Work – Shared Vision” philosophy SynteractHCR provides customized Phase I through IV services collaboratively and cost effectively ensuring on-time delivery of quality data so clients get to decision points faster. Operating in 16 countries, SynteractHCR delivers trials internationally, offering expertise across multiple therapeutic areas including notable depth in oncology, CNS, infectious disease, endocrinology, cardiovascular and respiratory, among other indications.

CONTACT: Beth Walsh [email protected] 760-230-2424

SOURCE SynteractHCR

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Ignyta, a personalized medicine company has secured a $1 million capital term loan facility from Silicon Valley Bank. Last year, the company closed a $5.5 million Series B financing led by City Hill Ventures and Colt Ventures and a $500,000 capital term loan from Silicon Valley Bank.

PRESS RELEASE

Ignyta, Inc., the personalized medicine company dedicated to improving the diagnosis and treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), lupus and other autoimmune diseases, announced today that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has expanded its support of Ignyta through an additional $1M capital term loan facility. The new facility is incremental to the previous $500K facility entered into between Ignyta and SVB in June 2012.

“We appreciate the continuous support from Ignyta’s equity and venture debt investors and the shared vision for Ignyta’s efforts to bring better diagnostic products to patients suffering from autoimmune disease,” said Jonathan Lim, M.D., CEO and co-founder of Ignyta. “Ignyta is well-capitalized to execute our ambition of developing an objective biomarker based test to help detect rheumatoid arthritis in its earliest stages.”

“Ignyta has made substantial progress since we first formalized our funding relationship last year,” said Mike White, senior relationship manager at Silicon Valley Bank. “We are pleased to be able to support innovative life sciences companies seeking to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients.”

About Ignyta, Inc.

Ignyta, Inc., located in San Diego, California, is a personalized medicine company developing revolutionary new products and services to customize diagnosis and treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and other autoimmune diseases.

The company was launched in August 2011 by Jonathan E. Lim, M.D., former president, CEO, and board director of Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc., and Gary S. Firestein, M.D., director of the Clinical and Translational Research Institute and Dean and Associate Vice Chancellor of Translational Medicine at UC San Diego. Ignyta is a trailblazer in the application of “omics” technologies integrated with bioinformatics to the development and commercialization of novel biomarkers and tests for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in autoimmune diseases.

The scientific discoveries that fueled the founding of Ignyta were published in July 2012 in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (http://bit.ly/QOZ8Zr). In 2012, the company successfully closed a $5.5 million Series B financing led by City Hill Ventures, LLC and Colt Ventures and a $500,000 capital term loan from Silicon Valley Bank. About Silicon Valley Bank

Silicon Valley Bank is the premier bank for technology, life science, cleantech, venture capital, private equity and premium wine businesses. SVB provides industry knowledge and connections, financing, treasury management, corporate investment and international banking services to its clients worldwide through 28 U.S. offices and six international operations. Silicon Valley Bank is the California bank subsidiary and the commercial banking operation of SVB Financial Group. Banking services are provided by Silicon Valley Bank, a member of the FDIC and the Federal Reserve System. SVB Financial Group is also a member of the Federal Reserve System

http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=bwnews&sty=20130228005344r1&sid=cmtx4&distro=nx

SOURCE: Ignyta, Inc.

Ignyta Media and Investor Contact:
Zachary Hornby
[email protected]
858-369-5732

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VMG Partners has promoted Wayne K. Wu to principal. Wu joined VMG in 2008 as an associate with diverse experience in transactions, operations, and accounting.

PRESS RELEASE

VMG Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in investing in and building branded consumer product companies in the lower middle market, today announced the promotion of Wayne K. Wu to Principal.

“As we continue to grow and build our firm we are pleased to strengthen the management team by promoting from within our existing group of talented professionals,” said Michael L. Mauzé, a Managing Director of VMG. “Since Wayne joined the firm he has been closely involved with a breadth of transactions across industries and played a leading role in our most recent investment in BabyGanics. He has worked closely with the management teams of our portfolio companies to build stronger and more enduring businesses and also served as a mentor to his colleagues. We are pleased with his progress within our organization and recognize his contributions with this promotion.”

Mr. Wu joined VMG in 2008 as an Associate with diverse experience in transactions, operations, and accounting. Since then, he has worked on transactions across the firm’s investment focus, including in the food, beverage, pet and household products, lifestyle, and personal care sectors. He was promoted to Vice President in 2010. As is typical for senior members of the firm, he is involved in originating new investment opportunities, due diligence on new business opportunities, structuring transactions, and working with partner companies. Prior to joining VMG, he was CFO and Vice President of Corporate Development for Thomason Autogroup. He also was an investment banker with RBC Capital Markets, and he began his career as an associate at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Mr. Wu currently serves on the Board of Directors of Mighty Leaf Tea, Speck Products, and BabyGanics, the pioneering lifestyle brand of safe and effective household and personal care products for families with babies and children. He received his B.S.C. from the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University and is a licensed CPA in the State of California.

About VMG Partners
VMG Partners is an investor in branded consumer products companies in the lower middle market. Since its inception in 2005, VMG has participated meaningfully in the better-for-you food and beverage sector with investments in Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps®, sold to Snyder’s Lance in 2012, KIND Healthy Snacks, Pirate Brands Pirate’s Booty, Mighty Leaf Tea, Sequel Naturals Vega® and Kernel Season’s. Other investments within VMG’s portfolio include Waggin’ Train Pet Treats, sold to Nestle Purina PetCare Company in 2010, Natural Balance Pet Food, BabyGanics, Speck Products, Timbuk2, SkinMedica, sold to Allergan in 2012, and PLV Studio. VMG’s defined set of target industries includes food, beverage, wellness, pet and household products, personal care and lifestyle brands. VMG Partners is headquartered in San Francisco and in Los Angeles.

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Kala Pharmaceuticals has secured $11.5 million in Series A equity financing through new and existing investors. New and lead investor Crown Venture Fund the venture capital arm of the Crown family of Chicago, joined Kala’s existing investors including Lux Capital Management, Polaris Venture Partners and Third Rock Ventures.

PRESS RELEASE

Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading developer of innovative products that rapidly and effectively penetrate the mucosal barrier to treat a wide range of debilitating diseases, announced today that it has secured $11.5 million in Series A equity financing through new and existing investors. New and lead investor, Crown Venture Fund, LLC, the venture capital arm of the Crown family of Chicago, joined Kala’s existing investors, including Lux Capital Management, Polaris Venture Partners and Third Rock Ventures. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance a portfolio of innovative ophthalmic programs based on Kala’s Mucosal Penetrating Product (MPP) platform through clinical proof of concept.

“Crown Venture Fund is pleased to join Kala’s existing investors and support this team of ophthalmology industry leaders.”
“Kala’s front of the eye drug delivery advantages and ability to topically deliver a wide variety of drugs to the back of the eye will transform the ophthalmology sector,” said Richard Robb, a CVF representative. “Crown Venture Fund is pleased to join Kala’s existing investors and support this team of ophthalmology industry leaders.”

“With Crown Venture Fund we are pleased to expand our circle of committed, long-term investors who recognize the significant potential of this breakthrough technology,” said Guillaume Pfefer, Ph.D., Kala’s CEO. “This financing provides Kala with the resources to further deploy our technology as we focus our internal drug development efforts on innovative ophthalmic treatments while leveraging our platform to pursue collaborations for a range of other diseases where mucosal barriers have previously limited therapeutic efficacy. The potential breadth of this opportunity is evidenced by our recently announced collaboration with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.”

The financing will enable Kala to continue to progress on two of its most advanced programs which focus on topical treatment of ocular inflammation and wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Beyond ocular diseases, Kala is pursuing collaborations with partners in other disease areas where its proprietary MPP platform can be applied to serious diseases that involve mucosal tissues such as the lung, the gastrointestinal tract, and the female reproductive system.

About Kala Pharmaceuticals

Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is developing innovative products which are capable of penetrating mucosal barriers for the treatment of major diseases that affect the eyes, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and female reproductive system. Mucosal barriers have been largely overlooked as a limitation for drug efficacy. Using the company’s proprietary technology platform, Kala’s Mucosal-Penetrating Products (MPPs) have the unique ability to rapidly and uniformly coat and permeate mucosal tissues leading to highly effective treatments with improved side effect profiles. The company is leveraging its platform as an internal product engine for a wide spectrum of potential applications, including treatments for respiratory, ophthalmic, female reproductive tract and gastrointestinal diseases. Kala is also pursuing collaborations with partners to transform the therapeutic properties of marketed drugs and compounds in development. Kala was founded by leaders in the fields of nanomedicine and biopharmaceutical engineering, Dr. Justin Hanes of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr. Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dr. Colin Gardner formerly of TransForm Pharmaceuticals/Johnson & Johnson and Merck. The company is now backed by leading investors including Lux Capital, Polaris Venture Partners, Third Rock Ventures and, Crown Venture Fund, LLC.

Contacts
Contact:
Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 781-810-4748
[email protected]
or
Media:
The Yates Network
Kathryn Morris, 845-635-9828

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Incline Equity Partners has appointed April Simile as director of business development. Lauren McKibben, previously director of business development, will transition to a new role as investment associate with the firm.

PRESS RELEASE

Incline Equity Partners (“Incline”) today announced the addition of April Simile as Director of Business Development. Lauren McKibben, previously Director of Business Development, will transition to a new role as Investment Associate with the firm.

Ms. Simile will focus on deal origination; expanding Incline’s business with existing deal sources and developing new relationships with lower middle-market business owners and advisors.

“We’re very excited about the addition of April Simile to the Incline team,” said Jack Glover, Partner of Incline Equity Partners. “April brings a wealth of strategic marketing and communications experience to the position and will play a key role in the continued growth and success of our firm.”

Ms. Simile previously worked as a Senior Vice President at Allegheny Valley Bank, a Pittsburgh-based commercial financial institution. April held executive positions in the areas of commercial lending, corporate cash management, retail delivery, and marketing during her 12 year tenure. Ms. Simile received her B.S. in Finance, cum laude, from La Roche College.

Ms. McKibben, who has held the position of Director of Business Development since May 2009, will move to Investment Associate effective April 1, 2013. She will be responsible for evaluating and analyzing investments made by the firm.

About Incline Equity Partners
Incline Equity Partners focuses on making private equity investments of $10 million to $25 million in support of leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, and large minority financings of lower middle market growth companies with enterprise values between $25 million and $100 million across a variety of industry sectors including specialized light manufacturing, value-added distribution, and business and industrial services.

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Advanced Capital, the European alternative investment specialist founded by financier Robert Tomei, has appointed Robert Berlé as its new chief executive officer. For the past 15 years Tomei has focused on mergers and acquisitions and private equity deals, managing transactions across Europe, the United States and the Asia-Pacific region.

PRESS RELEASE

Advanced Capital, the European alternative investment specialist founded by financier Robert Tomei, today announced the appointment of Robert Berlé as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Robert has over 30 years’ investment and corporate banking experience alongside considerable experience in private equity gained at some of the leading names in the industry. For the past 15 years he has focused on mergers and acquisitions and private equity deals, managing transactions across Europe, the United States and the Asia-Pacific region.

Over the course of an impressive global career he has held roles including Managing Director of Rothschild, Barclays de Zoete Wedd and Kidder Peabody & Co as well as a senior banking position at JP Morgan. Prior to joining Advanced Capital, Robert was Vice-Chairman of DVR Capital, a merchant banking boutique based in Milan; it is the only independent merchant bank ranked amongst the ten leading financial advisors to private equity funds in Italy.

Robert Tomei, Chairman of Advanced Capital, said: “The private equity industry is more competitive than ever with funds fiercely competing to find value and opportunities in all markets. We have demonstrated, across our fund-of-funds model, that we have the talent, knowledge and expertise to deliver consistently high returns for our investors. It’s great to have Robert as CEO of Advanced Capital at a time when we are expanding into new sectors and geographies and continuing our transformation from innovative Italian fund of funds to global niche investor. His broad range of experience combined with his proven executive track record makes him the ideal choice for AC to consolidate its leadership.”

Robert Berlé, the new Chief Executive of Advanced Capital said: “Advanced Capital has repeatedly demonstrated the validity and attractiveness of the fund-of-fund model and is now expanding its investment outlook. I look forward to using my experience to lead the evolution of Advanced Capital into a global niche investor. I want to build upon the structures in place so that we can continue to exceed expectations and set new benchmarks for investor returns.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Advanced Capital (http://www.advancedcapital.com) is an independent group within the alternative asset management industry focused on corporate investments worldwide through a series of specialized private equity funds. Established in 2005 by Robert J. Tomei, AC has circa 1 billion Euro assets under management and offices in Milan, London, Lugano and Luxembourg. Advanced Capital currently manages five funds. These include the three highly diversified “top-quartile” international fund of private equity funds ACI, ACII and ACIII. Advanced Capital also manages two unique and specialized niche funds: AC Private Equity Real Estate and AC Global Energy Opportunities Fund. Advanced Capital was ranked second globally in Preqin’s April 2011 private equity funds performance analysis.

Lindsay Castellana
LUCHFORD APM
Kirkman House
12-14 Whitfield Street
London
W1T 2RF

Tel: +44 (0)20 7631 1000
Email: [email protected]
Company Website: luchfordapm.com
Engage with us:

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Carrick Capital Partners has added four industry leaders to its executive team. The appointments of chief technology officer Steve Unterberger and special advisors Kenneth Coleman, Raul Fernandez, and Tom Neff reflect Carrick Capital Partners’ commitment to assembling an exceptionally qualified team to serve its portfolio companies and investors.

PRESS RELEASE

Carrick Capital Partners, LLC today announced the addition of four industry leaders to its executive team. The appointments of Chief Technology Officer Steve Unterberger and Special Advisors Kenneth Coleman, Raul Fernandez, and Tom Neff are a reflection of Carrick Capital Partners’ early success and commitment to assembling an exceptionally qualified team to serve its portfolio companies and investors.
Carrick Capital Partners was co-founded by Marc McMorris, a former General Atlantic managing director who led investments in business services and software, and Jim Madden, the previous founder and chief executive of Exult Inc., a human resources business processing company. Carrick applies a distinctive combination of operational and investment expertise to help entrepreneurs and management successfully scale their businesses.
“We are very pleased to have attracted such outstanding additions to our team. Their in depth knowledge of the people and the process behind business process outsourcing and software companies, and their experience building entrepreneurial businesses will be invaluable as we help entrepreneurs and CEOs take their companies to the next level,” explained Marc McMorris, co-founder of Carrick Capital Partners.
“Steve Unterberger and I built Exult together as company co-founders. He has more than 20 years of technology and BPO experience and is particularly well versed in high growth BPO businesses. Raul Fernandez is a high-tech, serial entrepreneur who has worked with members of the Carrick team for more than 10 years. Kenneth Coleman is a seasoned technology executive with deep roots in Silicon Valley. Tom Neff has directed more than 300 CEO and 600 board searches and has an unparalleled knowledge of the leadership executives in this industry. Together these additions will provide greater breadth of experience and better delivery of Carrick’s ABV (Approach to Build Value) for our portfolio companies,” added Jim Madden, co-founder, Carrick Capital Partners.

Steve Unterberger is the chief technology officer at Carrick Capital Partners. Before joining Carrick, Mr. Unterberger held several positions at Exult, Inc. culminating in the role of business model architecture president until the time of its acquisition by Hewitt Associates, Inc. in 2004. Prior to Exult, Mr. Unterberger was a U.S. executive vice president of SHL Systemhouse, a $2 Billon IT Outsourcer acquired by MCI in 1995. Earlier in his career, he was also a senior manager at Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
Special Advisor Tom Neff has worked for Spencer Stuart & Associates, N.A. (executive search consulting) since 1976, serving as president of the worldwide firm from 1979 to 1996. Since 1996, he has served as chairman of Spencer Stuart, U.S. Previously, he was a principal with Booz Allen & Hamilton in executive search, CEO of an information systems company and held a senior marketing position with TWA. Earlier, he was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in New York and Australia. Tom serves on the boards of directors of ACE Limited (chair of governance committee), an $18 billion Zurich-based insurance company. He served on the boards of Hewitt Associates, Macmillan and Exult until they were acquired and also served on the board of the Lord Abbett mutual funds. He serves as a trustee emeritus of Lafayette College and previously served as chairman of the board of the Brunswick School.
Special Advisor Raul Fernandez is the chairman of ObjectVideo and former chairman & CEO of Dimension Data. Prior to that he was the founder & CEO of Proxicom, the leading global provider of e-business solutions for Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Fernandez led the company to an IPO in 1999, grew the company to over $200mm in revenue, and sold it to Dimension Data (LSE:DDT). He led the Information Technology Analysis Team for Virginia Governor Mark Warner’s Commission on Efficiency and Effectiveness. He sits on the boards of Fifth and Pacific (formerly known as Liz Claiborne), EXP (formerly TROW) and ValueOptions, the nation’s largest independent behavioral healthcare company. Mr. Fernandez is Vice Chairman of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, a private partnership which owns the NBA’s Washington Wizards, the NHL’s Washington Capitals and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and owns and operates the Verizon Center. Mr. Fernandez, a native Washingtonian, is an active philanthropist in DC regional non-profits, focusing his energy primarily on educational reform.
Special Advisor Kenneth L. Coleman is chairman of Saama Technologies, a leading provider of services and solutions in the data and analytics market serving many of the world’s most important brands from industries that include high technology, healthcare, life science, insurance and consumer packaged goods. He is the founder and former chairman/CEO of ITM Software. He served as executive vice president of global sales, service, and marketing for Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), vice president of product development at Activision, Inc., and various management positions at Hewlett-Packard. Mr. Coleman is a director of City National Bank, United Online, Accelrys, Inc., and is a member of the advisory board of the Ohio State University Business School.
About Carrick Capital Partners
Founded in San Francisco in 2012, Carrick Capital Partners is a private equity firm that utilizes a unique process – ABV (Approach to Building Value). Expert in leveraging opportunities and navigating challenges inherent to operationally scaling a fast growing business, Carrick works with select companies in specific markets. By taking a concentrated approach and dedicating significant resources post-investment, Carrick adds tremendous value; scaling great companies that deliver significant returns for investors, stimulating economic growth and positively impacting the industry landscape. Working directly with CEO’s and entrepreneurs, Carrick fulfills a vital need for investment and growth expertise.
__________________________
Machie Madden
LandersMadden, LLC
p: 212.292.8560 x1 | f: 253.595.2825
[email protected]
419 Lafayette, Second Floor, New York, NY 10003

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SAP AG is to acquire SmartOps, a provider of inventory and service-level optimization software solutions. The acquisition will boost SAP’s development of software solutions.

PRESS RELEASE

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced plans to acquire SmartOps, a leading provider of inventory and service-level optimization software solutions. The acquisition paves the way for SAP to develop “real-time supply chain” software solutions, leveraging the SAP HANA® platform, which empowers customers to run their businesses in real time — to analyze, predict, react and adjust instantly.
SmartOps provides key operating parameters and targets for supply chain management (SCM) planning. The company’s solutions coordinate capacity, inventory, demand, lead time and product availability variables that enable customers to optimize inventory and service levels, freeing up working capital for innovation and growth. SmartOps and SAP have a longstanding relationship, jointly delivering best-in-class supply chain solutions to many large enterprise customers.
Realizing the Real-Time Supply Chain
Companies around the world are facing the issues of volatile markets and growing logistics complexity. Winning in this environment requires an excellent understanding of the demand for your products and a most efficient supply network. This requires continuous work on the Sales and Operation plans, which consider revenue and profitability right away. Core and center of the Sales and Operations plan is to ensure highest customer satisfaction and lowest inventory levels. To reduce the demand uncertainty, better predictability and increased short term forecast accuracy is needed. Only this will keep inventory as low as possible during day to day operations.
SmartOps has developed large-scale, “stochastic” algorithms that take the uncertainty and risk out of SCM processes. These algorithms use predictive analytics to help manage global distribution networks and vast, multi-stage supply chains. Such solutions would be significantly enhanced by SAP HANA, allowing for processing of high volumes of data in real time. It also would complement and expand existing SCM sales and operations offerings from SAP, such as the SAP® Sales and Operations Planning analytic application powered by SAP HANA, the SAP® Demand Signal Management application powered by SAP HANA and the SAP® Advanced Planning & Optimization (SAP APO) component, paving the way for “real-time supply chain” solution. The two companies intend to provide current customers the same, or increased, levels of support without disruption to their existing systems.
Building to Provide Customer Value
A combined SAP and SmartOps holds the potential of offering great value to SAP customers. For example:
SmartOps’ existing Inventory Optimization Suite will complement and expand sales and operations planning solutions based on SAP HANA, enabling a “real-time supply chain” solution to be built on SAP HANA. It also adds to the SAP portfolio of multi-stage inventory optimization solutions that global businesses need today.
SmartOps’ new Enterprise Demand Sensing cloud-based analytics solution will enhance SAP Demand Signal Management, enabling customers to predictively and accurately manage their supply chain based on real-time demand and changing customer needs.
The two companies intend to provide current customers the same, or increased, levels of support without disruption to their existing systems.
Founded in 2000, SmartOps released its first product in 2001. The company has had a formal business relationship with SAP since 2006 and for the last four years has been a part of the program for solution extensions at SAP. SmartOps’ customers include major brands in the manufacturing, distribution, chemical, life sciences, retail, high-tech and consumer product industries.
Analysts note the market for supply chain software is large and diverse in offerings and growing. They predict a yearly growth of 7.7 percent, to exceed US$9 billion by the end of 2013. The dynamics of the market also are shifting. Companies around the world face issues such as volatile markets and increasing logistics complexity. Their sales and operations plans, which consider immediate revenue and profitability, demand the highest levels of customer satisfaction and the lowest possible inventory levels. Winning in this environment requires an excellent understanding of product demand and the most efficient supply network.
“We are at a turning point in the global market for supply and demand technology,” said Abdul Razack , senior vice president and head of Customer Engagement and Strategic Projects, SAP. “With the addition of SmartOps, SAP will be able to dramatically accelerate and improve the performance of real-time world-class supply chain management solutions that give customers the decisive competitive edge to succeed and grow their business.”
“Joining SAP is both a strategic and exciting move for us,” said Martin Barkman , president and CEO, SmartOps. “Having already embraced the need for both on-premise and cloud-based solutions, the prospect of developing these on SAP HANA will propel us to new heights in technology innovation.”
As part of the acquisition, SmartOps employees will join SAP. The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2013, subject to customary closing conditions.
For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom.
About SmartOps
SmartOps’ supply chain planning that right sizes inventory and captures more sales for global enterprises. SmartOps captures the full complexity and uncertainty of your global supply chain, and makes managing it simple. Deploying SmartOps solutions have dramatically improved supply chain performance at Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 companies in discrete manufacturing, consumer durables and packaged goods, technology, pharmaceutical manufacturing, distribution, chemicals and retail industries. SmartOps is an SAP global partner and integrates with all leading enterprise application platforms.
About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 232,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably.
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Ampersand Capital Partners, a healthcare-focused, middle market private equity firm, has made three appointments to its management team. Eric Lev has joined Ampersand as a partner, Dana Niles has joined Ampersand as the firm’s CFO and chief compliance officer and John Perkins has joined as an operating partner.

PRESS RELEASE

Ampersand Capital Partners, a healthcare-focused, middle market private equity firm, is pleased to announce three additions to its management team.
Eric Lev has joined Ampersand as a Partner, bringing over 12 years of middle market healthcare investing experience. Eric was most recently at Water Street Healthcare Partners where he served on the investment team since Water Street’s formation in 2005. While at Water Street, Eric played a key role in helping to build the firm’s practices in life sciences and diagnostics. Prior to Water Street, Eric worked at Beckman Coulter and at One Equity Partners. Eric holds a BA from Northwestern University and a MBA from the University of Chicago.
Dana Niles has joined Ampersand as the firm’s CFO and Chief Compliance Officer. Prior to Ampersand, Dana served as CFO of HighPoint Capital, a senior debt platform acquired by Crescent Capital in 2012. Before HighPoint, Dana served as Controller at both HLM Venture Partners and YankeeTek Ventures and as a Senior Auditor at Arthur Andersen. Dana holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Vermont and is a CPA.
John Perkins has joined Ampersand as an Operating Partner, where he will work with the investment team to identify and evaluate new platform opportunities. Most recently, John served as a senior executive at Ampersand portfolio company Talecris Biotherapeutics, which was acquired by Grifols in 2011. Prior to Talecris, John held roles as an operating executive at Cerberus and as an executive at General Electric. John holds a BA from DePauw University and a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.
“Ampersand has been making successful middle-market healthcare investments for twenty years, and these key additions further build on our strong base of healthcare investment experience and operating talent,” commented Herb Hooper , Ampersand Managing Partner. Over the last twenty years, Ampersand has invested in more than forty private healthcare companies; of these, the twenty-four realized investments have yielded a gross return multiple of more than 5X.
About Ampersand
Ampersand is a Boston-based private equity firm with a focus on middle market growth equity investments in the Healthcare sector. Ampersand leverages its unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. Over the past twenty years, Ampersand has raised seven funds, producing a 25% pooled internal rate of return to Limited Partners (net of all fees and carried interest). To learn more about Ampersand, visit www.ampersandcapital.com.
SOURCE Ampersand Capital Partners

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Agari has announced a $5 million strategic investment and the addition of two new executives. An undisclosed strategic investor and existing investors Alloy Ventures, Battery Ventures, First Round Capital and Greylock Partners participated in the round. Ingrum Putz has joined the company as vice president of engineering and Vidur Apparao as chief technology officer.

PRESS RELEASE

Agari today announced 300% revenue growth in 2012, a $5 million strategic investment and the addition of two new executives. Agari’s revenue growth was driven by new customer wins including the world’s largest brands across financial services, ecommerce and social media. These wins were enabled by Agari’s Email Trust Network which grew to more than two billion mailboxes worldwide and stops four million phish daily. In addition to the undisclosed strategic investor, existing investors Alloy Ventures, Battery Ventures, First Round Capital and Greylock Partners participated. The addition of industry veterans Ingrum Putz as Vice President of Engineering and Vidur Apparao as Chief Technology Officer to the groundbreaking Agari engineering team will accelerate the development and delivery of the company’s transformational email security solutions and will fuel wider adoption of its products by financial institutions, social media and Internet commerce companies.

“Agari is saving millions of dollars in eroded brand value and liability for our customers today–and the demand is growing as unauthorized use of brands for phishing accelerates,” said Patrick Peterson, Founder and CEO, Agari. “The additional capital and leadership that Ingrum and Vidur bring will enhance Agari’s growth in realizing our vision of a secure, trusted email channel.”

As Agari’s Vice President of Engineering, Mr. Putz leads software development, quality assurance and technical operations for Agari’s subscription services. Mr. Putz is broadly recognized for his deep acumen in cloud-based security and ability to rapidly deliver sophisticated products that meet high customer expectations and solve complex problems. Mr. Putz began his career at VeriSign and was most recently vice president of engineering at Voltage Security, where he conceived and built their encrypted email cloud service.

In his role as Agari’s CTO, Mr. Apparao is responsible for the research and architecture of innovative technical solutions to evolving cyber security threats including outbound email phishing. Working with Mr. Putz and other leaders of the organization, Apparao will represent the company’s technical point of view to industry bodies including the DMARC organization. Formerly, Mr. Apparao was the CTO at LiveOps where he was instrumental in transforming the company to a leading cloud contact center platform.

On a daily basis, Agari protects over 2.3 billion emails, stopping over four-million suspicious emails and detecting over 40,000 malicious URLs. Global leaders in financial services, Internet commerce and social media rely on Agari to protect their brand and their customers from costly fraudulent email. Agari’s rapid growth can be partially attributed to its leadership as a founding member of the DMARC Organization. DMARC helps senders and receivers technically collaborate to improve email authentication practices, and to enable receivers to reject unauthorized messages before they ever reach the inbox. Globally, DMARC protects 1.976 billion in-boxes or 60%. In the United States, 80% of inboxes are now protected by the standard.

Agari CEO Patrick Peterson will host industry leaders on a panel about the DMARC standard at the RSA Conference, Thursday February 28, 2013 in San Francisco. RSA attendees are welcome to attend. To learn how Agari can protect companies’ brands and customers, please visit www.agari.com.

About Agari, Inc.

Agari collects terabytes of email data from sources across the Internet to create a cloud-based solution to assess, visualize, and protect against email threats to brands, such as phishing and other fraud. Today, Agari protects more than 65 percent of US consumer email traffic and processes more than 2.3 billion messages daily. The Agari Email Trust Network becomes more pervasive, intelligent, and powerful as more join Agari to protect email users, customers, brands, business models, and corporate and cyber infrastructure. Founded by the thought leaders behind Cisco’s IronPort solutions, the Agari platform provides global brands with the tools needed to proactively protect brand reputation, eliminate email threats, protect customers and prevent the loss of sensitive data. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., Agari is backed by Alloy Ventures, Battery Ventures, First Round Capital, and Greylock Partners.

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