Start-up iSeg Technologies has completed its second financing round, raising $7 million. The company value for the round was not disclosed, but is estimated at $30 million, after money. Softbank Europe Ventures led the round. Another participant was Israeli fund STI Ventures, in which Softbank is invested. STI was the only investor in iSeg’s first round which took place in early 2000.
ISeg develops and markets a customer relationship management (CRM) software system that can interface with a company’s existing database, and enables the data to be segmented by various criteria, according to the customer’s needs. ISeg’s product, designed for the cellular market, is currently undergoing beta site testing at several cellular companies and is slated for commercial launching in January 2002.
ISeg, founded in 1999 by president and CEO Alex Verjovsky and COO William Goldfarb, employs 50 workers at its Israeli development center and sales and marketing centers in the US, Britain, and Germany.
Through its diverse structure, the Softbank conglomerate has invested in a number of Israeli companies, the best-known of which is BackWeb Technologies. Softbank’s various funds have also invested in iScraper (which closed recently), Camelot Information Technologies, Cyber-Ark Software, Spearhead Technologies, RealM Technologies, Vigil Technologies, and others.
STI Ventures has, to date, invested in 35 Internet infrastructure, fiber-optic, and wireless technology companies, including BrightCom Technologies, Speedwise, Eureka Technologies, and hLAN (wireless communications), InterWise and Banter (organizational software); From2.com, Diamond.com, and Tucows.com (Internet), and others. STI’s exits include Tradeum, (sold to VerticalNet), Security-7, (sold to Computer Associates for $20 million), and Butterfly, (sold to Texas Instruments for $50 million).
Published by Israel's Business Arena on March 27, 2001