Funding Based on Record Growth and Accelerating Demand For Email Management and Content Archiving Systems
Berhshire, UK – Content archiving and email management solutions provider KVS Inc., today announced that it has secured Series B financing of $17 million (10.63 million). The round was led by new investors Index Ventures and FTVentures and joined by previous investors.
With nearly 500 customers and close to three million user licences worldwide, KVS is the global market leader in email management and content archiving. Its key product, Enterprise Vault, can cut a company’s unstructured information storage costs in half by reducing the complexity and cost of the storage infrastructure, and efficiently managing the information lifecycle to enable rapid discovery of content. KVS delivers a proven return on investment within 12 months with an expected five-year ROI of 20-30 times cost. As a result, KVS is now the corporate standard for email management for numerous organizations worldwide including blue chip organizations such as Warner Music International, Sony Corporation, Lehman Brothers, Datek and Invesco.
Danny Rimer, partner of Index Ventures, commented, “Our focus at Index is to identify the largest growth opportunities and best management teams with which to be a partner. Email management and content archiving are two of the most significant pain points in most large enterprises today. KVS has developed the most mature solution in this space and has over the past couple of years shown strong growth in the UK, across Europe and in the US. We look forward in assisting KVS as it continues to hold market leadership.”
Bob Huret, partner of FTVentures, noted, “KVS is an excellent investment, due to its solid management team, superior product portfolio and strong partnerships. FTVentures strives to partner with proven companies in rapidly growing markets, with a focus on those that enable financial services worldwide to expand and operate more efficiently. Through our relationships with our Limited Partners, who are some of the world’s largest financial institutions, we know that issues of corporate email management and archiving are critical to large enterprises today. KVS is clearly the leader in these areas and is in an excellent position to capitalize on the global market opportunity.”
The funds will be used to drive the growth and expansion of the Company’s global sales and marketing organisation, as well as its UK based engineering organisation. KVS already has a direct presence in the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Benelux, and North America, as well as an extensive partner network with more than 90 partners operating in 15 countries worldwide. KVS is particularly strong in the legal and financial sectors, where regulatory compliance is driving the need for long-term retention of electronic data.
Mike Hedger, CEO of KVS, added, “Unlike many other software companies, KVS continues to experience exponential growth and buck the economic trend. The increasing demand for email management and retention in the context of corporate governance, transparency, auditing and disclosure is accelerating both the growth and the maturity of this huge market. We not only were one of the first companies to recognise the potential of this market, but are now also the recognised global market leaders with the largest installed customer base worldwide.”
The global focus on corporate governance, including regulatory and litigation risk, combined with the ever-present desire to drive cost out of the business, have resulted in extraordinary growth for KVS. Regulation on retention and deletion of data, including electronic correspondence driven by the SEC and the FSA, as well as specific legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, HIPAA, and the Data Protection Act among others, are forcing organisations to retain and audit content more diligently than in the past. With business emails expected to top 60 billion per day by 2006, KVS expects the market acceleration for regulatory compliance and storage management to continue to propel its business.
The company’s total financing to date since its initial seed capital in 2000 is $37 million (23 million). Other KVS investors include Cazenove Private Equity, Greenap Consulting Limited, Lehman Brothers European Venture Capital and Mosaic Private Equity.
About KVS
KVS is the leading provider of content archiving software, and was one of the first companies to identify the need to address the issues resulting from the explosive growth of information in messaging and collaborative systems. From legal/regulatory compliance and risk mitigation to infrastructure and migration challenges, KVS brings industrial strength to email and collaboration systems by delivering content archiving solutions that protect and prevent a company’s intellectual capital from becoming lost or dormant. The company’s flagship product, Enterprise Vault reduces storage costs, simplifies the management and enables the discovery of content held within Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint Portal Server environments. KVS is an international software company with offices in the UK, US, Benelux, France, Germany, and Australia. Further details can be found at www.kvsinc.com.
About Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a leading pan-European venture capital fund dedicated to investments in information technology and life sciences. The Index Ventures team has a deep technology and scientific focus and the ability to leverage a network of cross-Atlantic strategic relationships. Index proactively seeks out the top entrepreneurial teams in each investment area and leverages its core assets in helping the entrepreneurs build their company into a global leader. Index Ventures investors include leading technology firms and institutional investors. To learn more about Index Ventures visit: www.indexventures.com.
About FTVentures
Founded in 1998, FTVentures was the first venture capital firm in the U.S. to focus on technologies that benefit the global financial services industry. FTVentures now has over $623 million in total capital under management and is a leading investor in information technologies. FTVentures invests primarily in companies developing products and services in software and business services, with a particular emphasis on companies that enable financial institutions worldwide to expand and to operate more efficiently. FTVentures’ investors are 38 of the world’s leading financial institutions For more information, please visit: www.ftventures.com.
Contacts
Andrew Barnes
KVS INC.
+ 44 (0) 118 9273800
andrew.barnes@kvsinc.com
Vanessa Land
DEVONSHIRE MARKETING
+ 44 (0) 1276 675571
vanessa@devonshiremarketing.com
Karen Wilson
INDEX VENTURES
+ 41 22 737-0047
karen@indexventures.com
Karen Gilbert/Kim Kellogg
PR MANAGER FTVENTURES
(415) 229-3000
kgilbert@ftventures.com kimkellogg@ftventures.com