CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
14 June 2004
Company News
Aras Corporation Secures $12 Million Of Investment Capital
Aras Corporation ( http://www.aras.com ) announced that it has secured $12.25 million in Series C funding. Venture capital firm Oak Investment Partners, an early investor in Parametric Technology Corporation, led the investment with participation by top tier existing investors Greylock Partners and Matrix Partners. The capital will be used to further expand market share and to continue building a network of strategic alliance partners.
"Aras has developed an extremely powerful solution for leading mid-supply chain companies to manage their business processes more efficiently. The Aras model-based, web services approach significantly reduces the cost of deploying Product Lifecycle Management solutions, providing customers with significant savings over the cost of conventional PLM offerings," said Ed Glassmeyer, founding General Partner at Oak Investment Partners. "The company's rapidly growing customer base is a clear proof point."
"Aras' ability to provide comprehensive enterprise solutions with the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry stems from their innovative approach to using open Internet technologies in a unique model-based, service-oriented architecture," indicated David Skok, General Partner at Matrix Partners. "Our investment reflects Aras' demonstrated leadership in attracting customers and partners based on a proven application framework."
"Aras has emerged as a market leader because they have leveraged their application framework to redefine the way enterprise solutions are deployed and adapted," said Bill Kaiser, General Partner at Greylock Partners. "The ability to modify solutions without programming drives customer results much faster than previously possible representing a fundamental change in the market. With our follow on investment they are well positioned to extend their leadership."
Established in 1978, Oak Investment Partners is a venture capital firm with a strong track record as a stage-independent investor. To date, Oak has funded more than 350 companies with aggregate annual revenues in excess of $60 billion. Oak's investment strategy focuses on growth opportunities in enterprise application and infrastructure software, communications equipment and services, data storage, outsourced services, financial services technology, and healthcare services. Located in Westport, CT, and with offices in Minneapolis, MN, and Palo Alto, CA, Oak concentrates on building long-term relationships with experienced management to develop successful companies that deliver consistent performance over time such as AthenaHealth, Compaq, Genzyme, Parametric Technology Corporation, PictureTel (now part of Polycom), Polycom, SanDisk, Seagate Technologies, Sybase, Synopsys, Telica (acquired by Lucent), Wellfleet (acquired by Nortel) etc. For additional information visit http://www.oakvc.com
Founded in 1965, Greylock Partners is one of the nation's largest early-stage venture capital firms with over $2.2 billion in committed capital. With offices in Boston and San Mateo the firm focuses on early stage investments in enterprise information technologies, including core technologies, enterprise applications, and managed services; and communications technologies, including systems, components, software and services. Over the past 37 years Greylock Partners has provided equity capital and assistance to more than 250 businesses resulting in numerous market leaders including Red Hat, Ascend Communications (now part of Lucent), SDRC (now part of UGS), Hyperion Software, Manugistics, Mentor Graphics, Neutrogena, Apollo Computer (now part of Hewlett-Packard), Tellabs, and Teradyne. For additional information visit http://www.greylock.com
Since its inception in 1977, Matrix Partners has been dedicated to a quality conscious approach to technology investment with the specific goal of building successful, independent companies. Matrix Partners focuses on companies that develop revolutionary, cornerstone technologies in a broad range of sectors including software, communications equipment, semiconductors, storage, Internet, and wireless. Matrix Partners active approach and bi-costal presence in the two major technology centers of the United States, Boston and Silicon Valley, have contributed directly to the success of premier companies such as Apple Computer, SilverStream Software (now part of Novell), Sycamore Networks, XILINX, FileNet Corporation, eRoom Technology (now part of Documentum), Watermark Software (now WM Software), Apollo Computer (now part of Hewlett-Packard), Tivoli Software (now part of IBM), and Veritas Software. For additional information visit www.matrixpartners.com
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