Start up, cVidya, completed its initial funding round of $3 million of the total planned funding of $5 million. Stage One Ventures and an US based venture capital fund participated in the round of funding. The De-Kalo Ben Yehuda Investment Bank is assisting the company in sourcing the investors and closing the deal. The company is currently in the process of completing the additional $2 million of investment.
Alon Aginsky, founder and CEO of cVidya stated that the capital raised will be targeted to complete the development of the company’s product line as well as to penetrate the US and European markets.
cVidya develops a platform and suite of applications for Tier 1 and Tier 2 data communications providers, based on innovative technology which enables carriers to substantially maximize Quality of Service (QoS), reduce expenses and rate customers according their economic viability to the carrier. The platform will provide telecommunications providers with data, which will assist them in real time decision making, and substantially reduce service costs associated with manpower and equipment.
cVidya is currently running a trial in Bezeq’s labs. These trials ran alongside the technological and marketing due diligence performed by Stage One on the company. In addition cVidya is in the final stages of registering its patent, and enjoys strategic cooperative agreements with leading US and Israeli telecommunications companies.
The company, which is registered in the US, was established in September 2000 by Alon Aginsky, formerly VP business development at C. Mer. Approximately siix months ago, C. Mer and MTS (NASDAQ: MTSL) made a seed investment in the company. cVidya has offices in Tel Aviv Israel and employs a staff of nine. In the future, the company plans to open offices in the US as well.
Yuval Cohen, managing partner at Stage One Ventures stated; “Our investment in cVidya is a direct outcome of the Stage One ventures’ cooperation with Bezeq. Alongside our examination of cVidya’s technology and marketing in the last few months, the company ran trials at Bezeq’s labs. This is the second investment which Stage One has carried out this year, and it reflects our policy of investing in very early stage technology ventures, after thoroughly examining the product, technology and target market. cVidya had developed a product which meets the real needs of telecommunications providers in a fast growing market.”
Amir Ben-Yehuda, from De-Kalo Ben Yehuda Investment Bank, added that the high demand for investment in cVidya is a strong vote of confidence in the company, on the part of investors, considering the unstable economic and political climate, as well as the almost total cessation of investment in technology companies without recorded sales.
Stage One is a seed fund specializing in investments in the telecommunications sector. Primary investors and sponsors are Bezeq and Discount Capital Markets. Stage One manages about $40 million and is currently raising additional capital to complete the fund to the targeted $50-60 million. The fund leads rounds of $3-5 million in early stage companies. In the coming year, the fund intends to lead one investment per quarter. Stage One was established and is managed by Adoram Gaash, the founder and former CEO of Radwiz, which was sold to Terayon, and Yuval Cohen former Partner at Infinity.
Cohen and Gaash are the professional consultants for “Havzaka” project, and internal incubator within Bezeq for ventures which have their start in Bezeq itself. Stage One cooperates with Bezeq as a strategic investor during the process of both filtering and reviewing the candidates for investment, from the concept stage through to development. Bezeq’s labs and facilities are utilized by portfolio companies for their field trials.
Discount Capital Markets is involved in the management of a number of venture capital funds in Israel and is also a strategic investor and sponsor of Stage One, contributing its financial expertise and global network. Stage One was established in 2001, and to date has invested in Cresendo and cVidya.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on 29 May 2002