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Greybull Stewardship Closes $20 Million Evergreen Fund

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EMERYVILLE, CA (PRWEB) February 04, 2014

Greybull Stewardship today announced the closing of a $ 20 million evergreen investment fund, Greybull Stewardship, L.P. Since the fund’s January 2010 inception, annual returns have realized 23 percent after fees. As a result, existing limited partners (LPs) increased their commitments and new LPs were added for the second four-year cycle. The fund is industry agnostic, focusing instead on lower middle market companies with between $ 1 to $ 3 million in EBITDA. Other criteria include companies with strong competitive advantages, recurring revenue, and management teams that hold significant equity in the businesses and plan to remain in place after the investment.

“According to a Kauffman Foundation study, only 16 per cent on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies had venture capital backing, indicating there is a capital shortage in this sector,” said Mason Myers, general partner of Greybull Stewardship. “The companies we have invested in to date have reached a tipping point – a capital infusion supported by new governance structures gives management the tools to grow into the middle market.”

The fund’s evergreen structure is central to Myers’ strategy of realizing long-term, cash-on-cash returns with maximum flexibility for business owners. Evergreen funds have the flexibility to exit investments based on what is best for the business, rather than because of restrictions created by a fund’s limited life or other fund-specific limitations. Greybull Stewardship also focuses on generating returns by harvesting some cash tax efficiently from annual profits in addition to the sale of investments, which often is well aligned with the objectives of portfolio company co-owners and management.

“I want founders and business owners to see Greybull Stewardship as an ideal co-owner of their growing, profitable company, just as Berkshire Hathaway is the buyer of choice for many great businesses that do not want to sell to a strategic acquirer that will change things or a financial buyer that will sell the company again a few short years later,” said Myers. “I have been a fan of Berkshire Hathaway philosophies ever since my high school years in Omaha, Nebraska. One of the lessons I have taken from Warren Buffett is to create a structure for Greybull Stewardship that makes it an investor preferred by the very best companies.”

Greybull Stewardship’s growth portfolio includes:

    StormSource Software the developer of Appointment-Plus, the worldwide leader in mobile and online scheduling software.
    Main Street Gourmet a custom bakery specializing in custom foods such as cookies, muffins, brownies, granola, loaf cakes, toppings and desserts for grocery store bakeries and restaurants.
    ABC Sports Camps provides registration services for sport camps and events by offering complete online management, marketing and reporting tools.
    Real Estate Institute and Bookmark Education offer continuing education for real estate, mortgage, insurance, and legal professionals.
    Sites for Law Firms provides websites for law firms with built in marketing and self-editable content.

“Over the last three years, the company has grown from just a handful of employees to a current team of over sixty people. In that time we’ve grown revenue at a compound rate of over 35% per year and become the leading appointment scheduling software in a significant market. We look forward to our continued partnership with Mason and his investors as we continue to expand our services globally,” said Bob La Loggia, founder and CEO, Appointment Plus.

About Greybull Stewardship

Greybull Stewardship exists to provide business owners an ideal co-owner and steward of their business and earn attractive long-term, compounding, cash-on-cash returns for investors. Greybull’s evergreen fund structure and flexible investment horizon is designed to align with the objectives of portfolio company co-owners and management, comprised of growing, profitable organizations in the lower middle market with between $ 1 to $ 3 million in EBITDA.

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WAFU Inc. Closes First Ever Equity Crowdfunding round by a Canadian Company in the United States.

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada (PRWEB) June 08, 2013

WAFU Inc. is pleased to announce that it has closed the first ever accredited investor equity crowdfunding by a Canadian company in the United States via CircleUp, a leading U.S. equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors to invest in private consumer product companies in the United States.

“With the completion of this ground breaking U.S. equity crowdfunding round, we have not only been able to raise some of the capital that we need to continue to expand across Canada and the United States, but have also been able to attract experienced consumer packaged goods U.S. angel investors into our shareholder base who, we believe, will be invaluable in helping us to continue to grow our brand in the United States and increase the sales of our products in the U.S. through our new U.S. e-commerce site http://www.wafushop.com.” said WAFU CEO Gil Michel-Garcia.

WAFU Inc. raised gross proceeds of approximately $ 230,000 through the issuance of Series A-2 Preferred Shares and/or Series A-3 Preferred Shares to a small number of “accredited investors.”

All shares issued under the private placement are subject to a four month hold period from the date of issuance in Canada and are “restricted securities” subject to certain additional transfer restrictions in the United States.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities of WAFU Inc. in the United States or any other jurisdiction. None of the securities of WAFU Inc. have been or will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of U.S. persons except in certain transactions exempt from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act.

This news release is intended for distribution outside of Canada only and is not intended for distribution to Canadian newswire services or for dissemination in Canada.

About WAFU Inc.

WAFU Inc. (previously Mari’s Foods Inc.) is a Canadian privately held corporation based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 2006, WAFU Inc. develops, produces and distributes a line of Japanese dressings and Japanese mayos under the WAFU® brand name. WAFU® Japanese dressings are currently the leading brand of Japanese dressings in the Province of Quebec.







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Modria Closes New Investment Round to Fuel Expansion

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SAN JOSE (PRWEB) July 09, 2013

Modria today announced it has closed a $ 5 million dollar Series A investment round led by Foundry Group. As part of Modria’s expansion, J. Scott Carr has joined Modria as president and CEO. The Modria platform is the leading online dispute resolution system in the world, enabling businesses and government agencies of any size to resolve customer problems swiftly and fairly. Its proven, scalable cloud-based technology brings all parties involved in a dispute to the table quickly and efficiently, enabling them to arrive at an equitable solution that reduces cost and increases customer brand loyalty.

Colin Rule, co-founder of Modria, wrote the seminal book on online dispute resolution for business (Online Dispute Resolution for Business, published in 2003). He and the core Modria team built the only resolution system to operate at scale, resolving 60 million eBay and PayPal cases a year. In 2011, Rule spun-out of eBay to start Modria, building the next generation resolution platform to address customer issues for business and governments of all sizes. The creator of online dispute resolution, Ethan Katsh, serves as the Chair of Modria’s Board of Advisors.

“Companies like eBay have long known the importance of converting disputes into fair and swift outcomes as a means of growing their business. Now, businesses in other sectors, from insurance companies to healthcare and government agencies, are climbing on board,” said Colin Rule, COO and Chairman of the Board of Modria. “Foundry’s investment in Modria is further evidence of how important this space is. Bringing Scott Carr, a proven executive with a solid track record growing web companies, on board as our CEO ensures that we will grow the company quickly, responsibly and with extreme customer focus.”

Foundry joins an impressive roster of leading angel investors in supporting Modria’s growth, including Kapor Capital (Mitch Kapor), EDVenture Holdings (Esther Dyson), and Dan Ciporin (former Chairman and CEO of Shopping.com), as well as institutional investors Battery Ventures and Advanced Technology Ventures.

“With the explosion of online activities, people are transacting at a rate never before seen,” said Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Foundry Group. “This obviously includes ecommerce, but also includes everyday tasks like paying bills online, reviewing property assessments, filing insurance claims, and other things that used to be non-digital activities. It is inevitable that all of these new transactions will generate an enormous amount of disputes that need to be resolved. We believe Modria’s rare combination of deep dispute resolution expertise and proven technology positions them for both short and long-term success.”

Along with the capital infusion, Modria has added Scott Carr to the executive team as CEO. Carr spent the last 15 years leading businesses where trust and transparency were key ingredients of the product value proposition. Carr was president and CEO of YottaMark, a leader in product traceability and supply chain analytics, and EVP of marketing and business development at Digimarc, a leader in content security and identification technologies.

“Complaints and disputes are a fact of life in the networked economy, from online marketplaces to online banking,” said Scott Carr, president and CEO. “They happen hundreds of millions of times a year. What has been missing is a solution that delivers fair resolutions for all these disputes. The Modria platform solves this problem with a scalable, transparent system that provides appropriate resolution processes for every kind of dispute, leveraging software-only and human-powered processes as needed. It’s the first step toward a future in which companies and customers around the world settle their disputes amicably outside the overburdened court system.”

The Modria platform is based on more than a decade of research in online conflict resolution. It combines deep knowledge of legal processes with a scalable and reliable toolset in the cloud. Modria flags and diagnoses customer issues quickly and drives effective negotiation, mediation and arbitration before complaints can disrupt a business and bubble up in social media. Its underlying methodology has been used to successfully settle more than 400 million customer issues.

The Modria platform can handle any caseload, big or small, anywhere and anytime. It is in use today, supporting government and commercial caseloads in the US, Canada, and Europe. The Modria Diagnosis module collects and organizes all the relevant information about the issue and suggests possible solutions. The Negotiation module distills points of contention and enables the parties to discuss the matter directly and on the record.

If the parties are unable to resolve the issue through negotiation, the Mediation module provides an impartial third party to help clarify issues and brainstorm options. If no mutual agreement can be reached, the Arbitration module lets the parties select a decision maker who examines the facts and renders a decision. Throughout the entire process, users can engage in transparent, secure discussions and submit rich assets such as documents and videos supporting their arguments.

About Modria:

Founded in 2011, Modria’s team of technologists, and legal and dispute resolution experts are building the dispute resolution platform for the Internet, providing businesses and government agencies of any size with a scalable and transparent cloud-based platform to diagnose and resolve disputes of all sizes. Modria’s experts created the technology used by eBay and PayPal that has solved hundreds of millions of cases. The company is privately held and based in San Jose, CA. Find more information at http://www.modria.com or email info(at)modria(dot)com.

CONTACT: Scott Carr, scott(at)modria(dot)com, 408.295.5003







Gengo Closes a New Round of Funding with Intel Capital, Atomico, Iris Capital, Infocomm Investments, NTT-IP Fund and STC Ventures

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Tokyo (PRWEB) April 24, 2013

Gengo, the translation platform for global companies, announced that the company has recently closed a US$ 12M round of funding led by Intel Capital, along with participation from Iris Capital, Infocomm Investments, NTT-IP Fund and STC Ventures, and from returning investor Atomico.

Gengo provides an API and platform for fast, high-quality human translation for 33 languages, provided by a pool of over 7,500 tested and rated translators for global large and small-and-medium-sized companies as well as individuals. Currently, leading e-commerce, online travel, and community portals are powered by its translation platform.

With this new round of financing, Gengo will accelerate global expansion, while also improving the translation platform and increasing the speed of the translation process. Gengo recently partnered with YouTube, enabling video uploaders to order professional-quality translation for their captions. Leveraging Gengo’s translation platform, more and more of this kind of online communications will happen globally.

“The Gengo team is excited about working with investors from Asia, the USA, Europe, and the Middle East, lead by Intel Capital, because of their global experience and track record helping entrepreneurs,” said Robert Laing, CEO and co-founder of Gengo. “There’s a significant technology component to human translation at scale, so it’s great to work with a firm with the pedigree of Intel Capital,” added Matthew Romaine, CTO and co-founder of Gengo.

“As the Internet breaks down the concept of national borders, we think Gengo’s service will vitalize communication for people around the world.” said Kaz Yoshida, President, Intel K.K. “It will help to break the language barrier and bring together the wisdom of the people to address global social challenges we are facing. Intel promotes innovation so that people can enjoy rich and fulfilling experiences.”

“Gengo is at the forefront of the crowd-sourced translation space,” said Sudheer Kuppam, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Intel Capital. “Intel Capital welcomes Gengo to its portfolio. We look forward to working with the company to bring this unique service to more users worldwide.”

“Since our original investment, Gengo has proven it can scale its business across the world whilst growing its revenue fourfold,” said Hiro Tamura, Partner at Atomico. “We are excited to have Intel Capital, Infocomm and Orange all join the team as they share our core belief that the world is getting smaller, and that the most successful businesses of tomorrow will be truly global.”

“The 33 billion-dollar translation market is expected to experience a radical change and we believe that Gengo will play a crucial role in the change,” said Denis Barrier, Partner at Iris Capital. “We think it’s wonderful that Gengo has been based in both Asia and Silicon Valley since its establishment and is managed by visionary founders with global perspective”

“We are excited to join the team of truly global investors in helping Gengo with its expansion plans” said Kuo-Yi Lim, CEO of Infocomm Investments. “Singapore is well positioned – with a multicultural and multilingual environment, and diverse talent pool – as a base for Gengo’s growth into the rest of Asia.”

“Gengo provides crowd-sourced translation services utilizing a uniquely developed platform”, said Nobuyuki Akimoto, Executive Vice President & COO at DOCOMO Innovation Ventures. “They have been creating growing opportunities as a globally expanding start-up company and we look forward to their growth.”

About Gengo:

Gengo is the platform for global companies. A powerful API lets enterprise customers integrate professional-quality translation into their application, making it easy to build multi-language services. Gengo’s simple website also allows individuals and SMBs to order individual translations in a matter of seconds. Over 7,500 qualified translators work on jobs through the Gengo platform, in all timezones. This scale means Gengo can return simple translations in a matter of minutes, in 33 languages and at a quality level suited to each customer. Gengo’s platform takes care of quality control, job allocation and translation review. This means companies can focus on their business, while Gengo empowers them to go global. Gengo was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Tokyo.

About Intel Capital:

Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, health, consumer Internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$ 10.8 billion in over 1,276 companies in 54 countries. In that timeframe, 201 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 317 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2012, Intel Capital invested US$ 352 million in 150 investments with approximately 57 percent of funds invested outside North America. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit http://www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.

About Atomico:

Atomico is an international technology investment firm, focused on helping the world’s most disruptive technology companies reach their full potential on a global scale. Founded by Niklas Zennström, the co-founder of Skype, they have become the investor of choice for ambitious entrepreneurs due to our unique international network, and ability to help companies operationally, with offices in London, Beijing, São Paulo, Istanbul and Tokyo. Their investments include category leaders such as Rovio, Jawbone, Fab, Klarna and Skype. http://www.atomico.com

About Iris Capital:

Iris Capital is a pan-European venture capital fund manager specializing in digital economy. Since its inception in 1986, the Iris Capital team has invested more than €900 million in more than 200 companies. Iris Capital targets opportunities in service or technology companies, seeking growth capital in order to realize their strategy. It provides active support to its portfolio companies on the basis of its strong sector specialization and experience, and has offices in Paris, Düsseldorf, San Francisco, Montreal, Riyadh, Dubai, Beijing and Tokyo. In 2012 Iris Capital has entered into a strategic partnership with Orange and Publicis to manage their

joint venture capital initiative. http://www.iriscapital.com

About Infocomm Investments

Infocomm Investments is the venture capital arm of Singapore government’s IT authority — IDA (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore). Managing a fund of $ 200 million, Infocomm Investments invests alongside top-tier investors in growth stage technology companies and help startups around the world expand to Asian markets by leveraging Singapore’s top-class business infrastructure. For more information: http://www.infocomminvestments.com

About Docomo Innovation Ventures

DOCOMO Innovation Ventures, on behalf of NTT Group, play a proactive role in accelerating innovation for technologies and services by discovering, nurturing, and supporting venture businesses. We have just established 10-billion-yen (approximately 105 million USD) DOCOMO Innovation Fund, and have been operating 15-billion-yen (approximately 158 million USD) NTT Investment Partners Fund (NTT-IP Fund) since 2008. For more information: http://www.docomo-i-ventures.com/

About STC Ventures

STC Ventures is a venture capital fund, independently managed by Iris Capital, whose anchor investor is the Saudi Telecom Company. STC Ventures is focused on equity investments in the information technology, telecommunications, and digital media/entertainment sectors; seeking to support the development of innovative technology companies in Saudi Arabia, the GCC, Levant, North Africa and Turkey, in addition to funding globally minded international companies seeking capital and access to the MENA region. STC Group is the largest telecommunications company in MENA, ranked in the top 20 mobile networks in the world, and serving more than 160 million subscribers. http://www.stcventures.com

Gengo is trademark of Gengo Inc in the United States and other countries.
Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.
Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Contact:

Gengo, Inc.

Seiya Vogt

TEL: +81-3-6447-0311

MAIL: seiya (at) gengo (dot) com







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Overture Technologies Closes $6 Million Series C Funding Led by Capital Trust Ventures

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Bethesda, MD (PRWEB) December 19, 2008

Overture Technologies, the leading provider of decisioning software solutions that enable transparent, accurate and responsive lending processes, announced it has closed $ 6 million in Series C funding led by Capital Trust Ventures with continuing participation from CNF Investments, New Markets Growth Fund and other existing investors. Financing will be used to support market expansion to meet urgent and increasing demand for the company’s financial decisioning solutions serving the mortgage and education lending industries. In conjunction with the funding, Tim Meyers, Managing Partner at Capital Trust Ventures, has joined Overture’s board of directors.

“Today’s mortgage and student loan industries require consistent application of complex lending and pricing guidelines and thorough evaluation of ever-changing risk and asset valuation data to meet current and future regulatory requirements,” said Bill Kelvie, CEO, Overture Technologies. “This growth funding from experienced investors during a challenging time further validates our approach and will help us accelerate our reach for the markets we serve.”

Overture enables market efficiency and improves risk management in underwriting, pricing, servicing and valuing mortgage loans and assets with its Mozart suite of solutions, industry-leading automated decisioning software for originations and acquisitions, servicing, secondary marketing and the capital markets. In addition to Overture’s advanced FHA lending decisioning capabilities, its groundbreaking solution uses rules-driven decisioning for loan modifications to keep borrowers in their homes.
Overture’s education finance solutions empower colleges and universities, lenders, guarantors and other service providers to help students intelligently navigate the process of funding their education with Conductor, the leading online financial aid portal, the Student Loan Marketplace loan comparison tool and Amadeus, the premier student loan pricing and underwriting solution.
“Overture is providing business rules management systems for lending processes that can restore confidence in the credit markets and prevent the current crises in mortgage and education lending from happening again,” said Tim Meyers, Managing Partner, Capital Trust Ventures. “We’re pleased to invest in a company led by industry veterans and technology thought leaders who are enabling greater accuracy, transparency and efficiency for this significant and essential segment of the financial services sector.”

About Capital Trust Ventures:

Capital Trust Ventures provides growth-stage venture capital financing for information technology companies. We work closely to form a strong partnership with proven entrepreneurial leaders with the vision and spirit to build market-leading companies, help them to achieve scale and exit successfully. Our team of partners has extensive investing and entrepreneurial experience in multiple sectors including application software, emerging technologies, vertical software, new media, internet content, e-commerce and infrastructure software. Capital Trust Ventures is a member of the Capital Trust Group, a leading private equity and advisory firm. For additional information, visit http://www.capitaltrustventures.com.

About Overture Technologies:

Founded in 2000, Overture Technologies is the leading provider of decisioning software solutions that enable transparent, accurate and responsive lending processes for the mortgage and higher education lending industries. Overture’s customers are dedicated to providing superior mortgage underwriting, servicing and securitization services and to increasing students’ access to higher education financing alternatives. Overture’s leadership team applies decades of experience from leading financial services and technology firms including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Goldman Sachs, IBM and KPMG to help our customers achieve their goals. For further information, call (301) 492-2155 or visit http://www.overturecorp.com.

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