SEP Leads $8m Million Investment in Metaforic
Poster: SySAdmin
Posted on April 18, 2011 at 1:07:01 AM
SEP Leads $8m Million Investment in Metaforic
Anti-piracy Software Leader to Accelerate Global Expansion Plans
LONDON, April 18, 2011/PRNewswire/ -- Leading growth equity and venture capital firm Scottish Equity
Partners (SEP) has led a $8 million (GBP5m) financing round for Metaforic, a
software company based in Glasgow and California which has developed products
to combat piracy and hacker attacks.
The funding round was supported by the company's existing
investors Pentech Ventures and the Scottish Investment Bank's Scottish
Venture Fund. Metaforic will use the funds to expand its international sales
and marketing activity.
Metaforic, which counts leading international video game
manufacturers and enterprise software businesses in its customer base, solves
a major headache for these businesses, who lose billions of pounds of revenue
each year from piracy and hacker attacks on their products.
The company was founded in Glasgow by Andrew McLennan, Neil
Stewart, and Linda Mackellar, and has expanded significantly under the
leadership of experienced top team of Chairman Bill Krepick and Chief
Executive Dan Stickel, who previously led NASDAQ-listed Macrovision, a
leading provider of IP-protection technologies. The company now has a
worldwide presence, with sales, engineering, and support operations in
Glasgow, a sales, support, and marketing base in San Jose, California, and a
sales and support presence in Tokyo, Japan.
Stuart Paterson, a partner at SEP, said: "We are very
confident in the growth prospects for Metaforic. It has a very strong
management team who have succeeded in this space before. Its products serve
an urgent need for games companies and enterprise software businesses to
deploy software solutions which prevent loss of revenue through piracy, or
need the reassurance that their software has been hardened against cyber
attack."
Paterson added: "Metaforic's software solutions are far more
effective than rival products and much-needed. Loss of revenue from piracy in
the games market alone is estimated at more than $10 billion a year. There
are also strong growth opportunities in enterprise and embedded software too
where we believe Metaforic's solution is the best and simplest to implement."
Metaforic CEO Dan Stickel said: "We are pleased to add such an
experienced and successful firm as SEP to our investor group, and pleased
that our previously existing investors have all participated in this round as
well. Metaforic technology has been years in development, and has now proven
itself in the field, with excellent results in multiple markets. Our
customers tend to be somewhat shy about the security technologies they use,
but some of the biggest names in the industry are now using Metaforic
technology."
Craig Anderson, a partner at Pentech Ventures, said:
"Metaforic has made considerable progress since our initial investment in
2008 along with the Scottish Investment Bank's Scottish Co-investment Fund,
and is experiencing growing demand for its range of security and asset
protection products, based on its unique anti-tamper technology. This latest
financing round, coupled with a management team with significant industry
experience, will allow the company to capitalise on this significant market
opportunity."
NOTES TO EDITOR
About Metaforic
Metaforic develops and markets security and IP protection
products based on revolutionary new anti-tamper technology, protecting and
hardening software applications in a variety of markets on a wide range of
platforms. Metaforic has offices in the United States, the UK, and Japan.
http://www.metaforic.com
About SEP
Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) is a leading growth equity and
venture capital investor. Operating from offices in London and Glasgow, it
focuses on technology companies with high growth global potential and works
closely with them to build value. In January 2011 SEP exited from cancer
therapy company BioVex by Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN, SEHK: 4332) in a deal
worth $1 billion. At the end of 2010, it exited from multimedia home
networking company Gigle Networks which was sold to Broadcom Corp (NASDAQ:
BRCM) while Stentys, a Paris-based medical devices company completed a
successful IPO on the NYSE Euronext stock market. SEP's previous investments
include some of the UK's most successful technology companies including
bluetooth leader CSR (LSE:CSR); and global semiconductor business Wolfson
Microelectronics (LSE:WLF); as well as networks specialist Atlantech
Technologies (NASD:CSCO). The current portfolio includes award-winning high
growth companies including wireless communications leaders picoChip
(http://www.picochip.com/); and ipaccess ; energy-related technology
specialist ARKeX (http://www.arkex.com/home) ; semiconductor company Elonics
(http://www.elonics.com/index.do); web traffic expert Zeus (
http://www.zeus.com/); oil technology business Deep Casing Tools
(http://www.deepcasingtools.com/); flight search engine Skyscanner
(http://www.skyscanner.net/); and IT analytics company Sumerian
(http://www.sumerian.com/) .
For more info on SEP visit http://www.sep.co.uk
About Pentech Ventures
Pentech Ventures invests in companies developing and marketing
enterprise software, SaaS solutions and internet technologies, working in
applications ranging from digital media, e- commerce, social gaming and
mobile advertising to software protection and software verification. The
Pentech Partners and Advisory Group Members have considerable experience in
starting, developing and exiting software businesses, both in Europe and in
the U.S. The Pentech Fund is managed by Pentech Ventures LLP, and includes
the European Investment Fund amongst its investors. Pentech Ventures is
regulated by the FSA. For further information, see http://www.pentechvc.com.
About the Scottish Investment Bank
The Scottish Investment Bank
(http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/fund-your-business/scottish-investment-
bank.aspx) is a division of Scottish Enterprise which operates Scotland-wide,
in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It operates a suite of
funds including; The Scottish Seed, the Scottish Co-investment, the Scottish
Venture and the Scottish Loan Fund to support Scotland's SME funding market
to ensure that businesses with growth and export potential have adequate
access to growth capital, see http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/sib.
(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste
this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the
space if one exists.)
Source: Scottish Equity Partners
Valerie Darroch. E Valerie.darroch@sep.co.uk m. +44-7970-737-708
Anti-piracy Software Leader to Accelerate Global Expansion Plans
LONDON, April 18, 2011/PRNewswire/ -- Leading growth equity and venture capital firm Scottish Equity
Partners (SEP) has led a $8 million (GBP5m) financing round for Metaforic, a
software company based in Glasgow and California which has developed products
to combat piracy and hacker attacks.
The funding round was supported by the company's existing
investors Pentech Ventures and the Scottish Investment Bank's Scottish
Venture Fund. Metaforic will use the funds to expand its international sales
and marketing activity.
Metaforic, which counts leading international video game
manufacturers and enterprise software businesses in its customer base, solves
a major headache for these businesses, who lose billions of pounds of revenue
each year from piracy and hacker attacks on their products.
The company was founded in Glasgow by Andrew McLennan, Neil
Stewart, and Linda Mackellar, and has expanded significantly under the
leadership of experienced top team of Chairman Bill Krepick and Chief
Executive Dan Stickel, who previously led NASDAQ-listed Macrovision, a
leading provider of IP-protection technologies. The company now has a
worldwide presence, with sales, engineering, and support operations in
Glasgow, a sales, support, and marketing base in San Jose, California, and a
sales and support presence in Tokyo, Japan.
Stuart Paterson, a partner at SEP, said: "We are very
confident in the growth prospects for Metaforic. It has a very strong
management team who have succeeded in this space before. Its products serve
an urgent need for games companies and enterprise software businesses to
deploy software solutions which prevent loss of revenue through piracy, or
need the reassurance that their software has been hardened against cyber
attack."
Paterson added: "Metaforic's software solutions are far more
effective than rival products and much-needed. Loss of revenue from piracy in
the games market alone is estimated at more than $10 billion a year. There
are also strong growth opportunities in enterprise and embedded software too
where we believe Metaforic's solution is the best and simplest to implement."
Metaforic CEO Dan Stickel said: "We are pleased to add such an
experienced and successful firm as SEP to our investor group, and pleased
that our previously existing investors have all participated in this round as
well. Metaforic technology has been years in development, and has now proven
itself in the field, with excellent results in multiple markets. Our
customers tend to be somewhat shy about the security technologies they use,
but some of the biggest names in the industry are now using Metaforic
technology."
Craig Anderson, a partner at Pentech Ventures, said:
"Metaforic has made considerable progress since our initial investment in
2008 along with the Scottish Investment Bank's Scottish Co-investment Fund,
and is experiencing growing demand for its range of security and asset
protection products, based on its unique anti-tamper technology. This latest
financing round, coupled with a management team with significant industry
experience, will allow the company to capitalise on this significant market
opportunity."
NOTES TO EDITOR
About Metaforic
Metaforic develops and markets security and IP protection
products based on revolutionary new anti-tamper technology, protecting and
hardening software applications in a variety of markets on a wide range of
platforms. Metaforic has offices in the United States, the UK, and Japan.
http://www.metaforic.com
About SEP
Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) is a leading growth equity and
venture capital investor. Operating from offices in London and Glasgow, it
focuses on technology companies with high growth global potential and works
closely with them to build value. In January 2011 SEP exited from cancer
therapy company BioVex by Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN, SEHK: 4332) in a deal
worth $1 billion. At the end of 2010, it exited from multimedia home
networking company Gigle Networks which was sold to Broadcom Corp (NASDAQ:
BRCM) while Stentys, a Paris-based medical devices company completed a
successful IPO on the NYSE Euronext stock market. SEP's previous investments
include some of the UK's most successful technology companies including
bluetooth leader CSR (LSE:CSR); and global semiconductor business Wolfson
Microelectronics (LSE:WLF); as well as networks specialist Atlantech
Technologies (NASD:CSCO). The current portfolio includes award-winning high
growth companies including wireless communications leaders picoChip
(http://www.picochip.com/); and ipaccess ; energy-related technology
specialist ARKeX (http://www.arkex.com/home) ; semiconductor company Elonics
(http://www.elonics.com/index.do); web traffic expert Zeus (
http://www.zeus.com/); oil technology business Deep Casing Tools
(http://www.deepcasingtools.com/); flight search engine Skyscanner
(http://www.skyscanner.net/); and IT analytics company Sumerian
(http://www.sumerian.com/) .
For more info on SEP visit http://www.sep.co.uk
About Pentech Ventures
Pentech Ventures invests in companies developing and marketing
enterprise software, SaaS solutions and internet technologies, working in
applications ranging from digital media, e- commerce, social gaming and
mobile advertising to software protection and software verification. The
Pentech Partners and Advisory Group Members have considerable experience in
starting, developing and exiting software businesses, both in Europe and in
the U.S. The Pentech Fund is managed by Pentech Ventures LLP, and includes
the European Investment Fund amongst its investors. Pentech Ventures is
regulated by the FSA. For further information, see http://www.pentechvc.com.
About the Scottish Investment Bank
The Scottish Investment Bank
(http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/fund-your-business/scottish-investment-
bank.aspx) is a division of Scottish Enterprise which operates Scotland-wide,
in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It operates a suite of
funds including; The Scottish Seed, the Scottish Co-investment, the Scottish
Venture and the Scottish Loan Fund to support Scotland's SME funding market
to ensure that businesses with growth and export potential have adequate
access to growth capital, see http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/sib.
(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste
this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the
space if one exists.)
Source: Scottish Equity Partners
Valerie Darroch. E Valerie.darroch@sep.co.uk m. +44-7970-737-708