Israeli e-learning company InterWise has announced the completion of a $12 million internal financing round, the company’s fourth. InterWise’s existing shareholders participated in the round, including Leeds Equity Partners, Street Technology Partners, Lazard Technology Partners, and Benny Steinmetz’s STI Ventures. The money is intended to develop additional customer support resources and expand business operations.
CEO Frank Zvi and COO Hillel Kobrinsky founded InterWise in 1994. The company develops real-time interactive information transmission systems, mainly for the e-learning market. The company signed numerous deals in Asia last year, as well as a contract with AIG to train its insurance agents.
InterWise raised $30 million in May 2000 at a company value of $100 million, after money, and completed a $34 million in late 2001 at an estimated company value of $40 million. Participants in that round included Accenture Technology Ventures, Lazard Technology Partners, Britain’s UBS Cpaital, GIMV of Belgium, Leeds Equity Partners and Jim Manzi, former president and CEO of Lotus Development Corporation and InterWise honorary chairman.
Other investors include STI Ventures, Etgar - The Challenge Fund, GE Capital, JP Morgan, SAP (NYSE:SAP; XETRA:SAPG), Texas Pacific Group, Shrem Fudim Kelner and Link Technologies. InterWise’s customers include Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), Bank Leumi, Israel Discount Bank, Pele-Phone and Comverse Technology (Nasdaq: CMVT).
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on December 17, 2002