Fast-growing Big Data Software Firm Lands $4M in VC Funding
Fast-growing Big Data Software Firm Lands $4M in VC Funding originally published in Columbus Business First.
A Central Ohio maker of predictive analytics software has closed a $4 million Series A funding round led by Silicon Valley firm PointGuard Ventures.
Prevedere Inc., a 3-year-old company that recently moved from the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center to the Polaris area, will use the investment toward sales and product development. Each year, the company has more than tripled revenue, founder and CEO Rich Wagner said in a statement.
PointGuard leaders expressed a desire to land publicly traded companies as customers for Prevedere’s Big Data software, called Economic Intelligence, which culls data on weather, commodities and other external factors that can affect a business. Customers in several industries including venture capital use the data to help make better decisions on price, inventory and identifying new markets.
“Customers have dramatic success improving the top line and bottom line by taking early action to mitigate negative elements and to benefit from the positive elements identified by the Prevedere solution,” said a statement from Pete Thomas, managing director and co-founder of PointGuard Ventures in Menlo Park, California. “We’re convinced any enterprise, especially publicly traded companies, will want to use this software to improve their business forecasting and management.”
Thomas and Krish Panu, with a combined 35 years experience in VC and operations, founded PointGuard last year. They’re targeting software, networking and hardware in several industries and specialties including mobile commerce, cloud computing, health care, education and Big Data.
Prevedere won’t move its headquarters, but opened a Silicon Valley office a year ago in the Plug and Play Tech Center, a business accelerator in Sunnyvale, California.
Prevedere has now raised $6.7 million from its inception. Rev1 Ventures was the first investor in Prevedere in 2012, with $300,000 toward an eventual $1.2 million round. Rev1 also made an undisclosed additional investment in 2014. Those notes have now converted to an equity stake that will produce returns for Rev1’s investments in other startups if Prevedere is acquired or has an IPO.
“We’re excited about the combination of our local resources with out-of-region capital that will maintain and grow revenue and jobs in Central Ohio,” said a statement from Ryan Helon, Rev1 senior vice president for investment funds. “This is one way we want it to work.”
I’ll be talking to Wagner this morning for more on the deal.
Read more on the Prevedere deal here.
