Tradeum Technologies of Jerusalem today announced the closing of a first round of investment of over $3 million. Tradeum provides software and services for business-to-business exchanges over the Internet.
Israel Seed Partners led the round with Vertex Management and Scorpio, and two strategic investors, the Vanenberg Group and an unnamed multi-billion dollar information/financial
services company.
Tradeum provides technology based on industry standard formats for the formal description of goods and services within a language framework called XML (the eXtensible Markup Language). The use of standard descriptions allows direct and fair comparisons and makes things like plastics and biological chemicals into commodities that can be bought and sold with certainty on any computer. Forrester Research predicts that business-to-business commerce will generate $1.3 trillion in revenues by 2003.
" Business to business exchanges that are fast, open to both buyers and sellers, and accommodate more parameters than just price will be the key to realizing the full potential of commerce on the Internet," said Tradeum founder and chairman Dr. Zvi Schreiber.
Israel Seed’s portfolio includes XaCCT, electronic catalog builder Mercado, Dealtime.com, Foxcom, Iscraper.com and CSafe. Vertex Management is a global venture capital firm with over $500 million under its management. Scorpio, is part of the Steinmetz Technology Investment group, and has extensive experience and holdings in Internet companies. Vanenberg, controlled by Jan and Paul Baan, invested in Tradeum in the context of the VSF, its joint business to business e-commerce venture fund managed by Vertex. Tradeum is VSF’s first investment in Israel.
"Backing by investors of this caliber means real market credibility for Tradeum. It validates the strength of our research and development center here in Israel and propels our first mover advantage. We are already seeing it enhance our ability to compete for high level customers," Dr. Schreiber said.
Tradeum was founded in Jerusalem, and has fifteen employees.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on August 26, 1999