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eConvergent Completes $34 Million Second Round Financing, Bringing Total Funding to Date to $72 MillionTechnology Crossover Ventures (TCV) Takes Lead Position, Backed by Original First Round Investor, Crosspoint Venture Partners, Plus Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Bay Partners and Comdisco VenturesPLEASANTON, Calif. - July 31, 2000 - eConvergent, Inc., the world's first Business Solution Provider (BSP) for e-business customer interaction, today announced the completion of a $34 million second round equity financing by five leading investment firms: Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), Crosspoint Venture Partners (the original first round investor), Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Bay Partners and Comdisco Ventures. The company’s total equity and asset-based financing to date is $72 million. Proceeds will be used to expand sales, marketing, strategic partner development, as well as extend its technology infrastructure and service operations.At the same time, Brooke Seawell, TCV general partner, joins the eConvergent board of directors, bringing the company’s board complement to four members. Seawell has more than 20 years’ management experience in the technology industry. He was previously executive vice president of NetDynamics, an Internet application server software company; and senior vice president and CFO of Synopsys, an electronic design automation software company. He has BA and MBA degrees from Stanford University and is a director of Accrue Software, Inc., Informatica, Mediaplex, NVIDIA Corporation and several privately held companies. "eConvergent is in a strong position to become a dominant player in the eCRM and BSP categories," Brooke Seawell, TCV general partner, said. "History has shown that the top one or two players in major markets can establish a highly defensible position, and reap the largest rewards. I believe that eConvergent has the potential to become the premier company in its market. The size of this round of funding is significant, in that it will provide eConvergent with the resources it requires to build best-of-class sales, marketing and service operations, extend its technology infrastructure and continue building strategic relationships." "With the support of these blue chip investors and a rapidly growing roster of alliance partners and clients, we are redefining how businesses create valued life long relationships with their customers," Clyde Foster, eConvergent president and CEO, said. "eConvergent is making it possible for businesses to purchase results, not just technology. This fundamental improvement on the way companies deploy e-business infrastructure makes it possible for our clients to deliver total customer satisfaction. The announcements we are making today mark an important milestone in the evolution of the eCRM market." eConvergent’s investors include: * Technology Crossover Ventures (www.tvc.com), having raised over $2.5 billion since 1995, is one of the largest venture firms in the country focused exclusively on the Internet. The company provides multi-stage venture funding and leverages its venture activity into the public market. TCV focuses on high growth sectors of the Internet including e-business applications, Internet infrastructure, Internet services, business-to-consumer, and business-to-business. * Crosspoint Venture Partners (www.crosspointvc.com), : Top-rated e-business VC by Forbes magazine this year, Crosspoint had several of the most successful IPOs last year, with more than $10 billion valuation. These included Juniper Networks, Foundry Networks, Brocade Communications and Ariba. * Morgan Stanley Dean Witter(www.msdw.com), Morgan Stanley Dean Witter’s Technology Group has been serving the needs of leading technology companies worldwide for the past 18 years. MSDW is the dominant force in technology initial public offerings and follow-on equity financings with over $25 billion of lead managed technology equity transactions during the 1990s. * Bay Partners (www.baypartners.com), Bay Partners is a venture capital firm that has been active in early-stage technology investing since 1976, funding over 150 companies with a proven investment strategy that delivers consistently superior results. Recent Bay Partners portfolio company success stories include Exodus Communications (NASDAQ:EXDS), Informatica (NASDAQ:INFA), Digital Island (NASDAQ:ISLD), Brocade Communications (NASDAQ:BRCD), and SonicWall (NASDAQ:SNWL). * Comdisco Ventures (www.comdisco.com), Formed in 1987, Comdisco Ventures has more than $2.1 billion committed to more than 750 venture capital-backed companies, particularly start-up and emerging-growth companies in the technology sector. "eConvergent is a strong player in the rapidly evolving marketplace for hosted CRM solutions," said Robert Mirani at The Yankee Group. "The Yankee Group believes that an integrated CRM platform that enables integration of best-of-breed components from key companies in the CRM marketplace, combined with services for legacy system integration and channel management, will be indispensable for e-businesses to be successful in the future. eConvergent's BSP offering is an example of the type of platform that is now emerging to meet the needs of e-businesses." "We are pleased to see eConvergent place such a significant venture funding round," said David Robbins, chief operating officer at Cephren, Inc. "We are relying on eConvergent to provide us with robust and leading-edge customer interaction services. With this funding, we are confident that eConvergent will have the resources they need to continue to evolve their technology and service organizations, and continue to build-out a world-class services infrastructure. We believe that eConvergent is the clear leader in the eCRM services market, and we looking forward to seeing them maintain and grow that position." About eConvergent eConvergent helps e-businesses and large enterprises establish and build lifelong customer relationships. The company is a leading Business Solution Provider (BSP) for customer interaction that helps companies create customer satisfaction. eMerge™, the company's flagship out-hosted service for managing customer interaction, provides companies with the information and tools they need to effectively manage customer relationships through the Web, chat, voice, email and fax. eConvergent’s BSP approach enables companies to purchase results, not technology. The company can be reached at (925) 931-2500, 1-888-CRM-FAST, info@econvergent.com or on the Web at www.econvergent.com. eConvergent, CRMS, Converge*, and eMerge are trademarks of eConvergent, Inc. Other company and product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies. *Patent pending. Editorial Contact: Tish Wagner Bairey & Bedford Public Relations 770-725-0585 tish@b2pr.com top of page © 2000 Real Market Research Corporation. Real Market is a registered trademark. |
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