iTKO Announces Series B Funding
Vesbridge Partners joins CenterPoint Ventures and Hunt Ventures in second round of funding for leading SOA testing company
Dallas, TX, June 11, 2007 - iTKO, Inc., a leading provider of testing solutions for SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) software, today announced that the company has secured $7.5 Million in Series B funding. The round was led by Vesbridge Partners, and existing investors CenterPoint Ventures and Hunt Ventures participated as well. The funding will be used by iTKO to continue global expansion of the sales and marketing team.
"With SOA implementations continuing to escalate and mature, we recognize the necessity of continuous SOA testing and validation," said Jeff Hinck, Senior Managing Director, Vesbridge Partners. "The SOA testing space is a rapidly growing market right now, and we believe we have found a market leader in iTKO."
The iTKO LISA software suite offers a complete solution for testing Service-Oriented Architectures. Unlike conventional UI- and code-oriented testing tools, LISA was built from the ground up to test the many heterogeneous components and workflows that make up SOA applications. With LISA, enterprises can continuously test every technology layer of SOA, throughout the development and deployment lifecycle.
"We are excited about the insight and experience Jeff brings to our board of directors, and Vesbridge is well known in the technology business community," said Shridhar Mittal, CEO of iTKO. "We look forward to using the Series B funding to increase our global sales and marketing efforts, as well as better service an increasing worldwide base of LISA customers."
Jeff Hinck of Vesbridge Partners will join the iTKO board of directors. He also holds board positions at Airband, Atrica, Storspeed and RipCode.
About iTKO
iTKO, Inc. offers the most complete software suite for testing Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA), allowing multiple business technology layers to be exercised within a single test case. iTKO's mission is to allow everyone involved in IT to own Complete, Collaborative, and Continuous(tm) software quality, from development, to QA and business analysts. iTKO LISA Complete SOA Testing Platform system performs unit, functional, regression, load and performance tests, without requiring test coding or script maintenance, saving up to 80% of the cost of testing over the course of six months. For dynamic web applications, web services, J2EE, .NET, Java objects, JMS/messaging, databases, and many more technologies, LISA provides live interaction with every layer, and gives everyone the "Freedom-to-Test" applications exactly as they will be deployed. Founded in 1999, the Dallas-based company's customers include Sun, Capgemini, Cardinal Health, AMD, TIBCO and i2.
http://www.itko.com
iTKO Press Contact: Jason English, VP Corporate Marketing - Jason.English@iTKO.com -- 214-764-9318
About Vesbridge Partners
Vesbridge Partners thrives on helping early-stage; leading-edge IT companies bring their software and service platforms to market. Vesbridge Partners, headquartered in Boston, Mass. has a long history as part of St. Paul Venture Capital (SPVC), a well established early-stage venture capital firm with a strong track record over the past 15 years of helping finance some of the industryâs most successful technology companies. Additional information can be found at the firm's website at http://www.vesbridge.com.
About CenterPoint Ventures
CenterPoint Ventures is one of Texas' largest early-stage venture capital firms. CenterPoint's target investment areas are communications infrastructure, business software technologies, semiconductor products, and new industrial technologies. CenterPoint's investment strategy combines market timing and focus, technology expertise, strategic relationships, entrepreneurial and corporate experience, and a commitment to succeed. Building on a strong technical and operational foundation, CenterPoint invests in the areas where they contribute the highest degree of expertise and value and aim to define and dominate strategic business-to-business areas. More information on CenterPoint is available at http://www.centerpointvp.com.
About Hunt Ventures
Hunt Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage technology companies. We have offices in Dallas and Austin and invest on a national basis with a particular focus on the Texas region. We have invested across multiple industry sectors including software, communications, and semiconductors. Beyond our capital investment, we actively work with the entrepreneurs to build great companies that address unmet needs in the marketplace. Hunt Ventures is part of the group of privately-held companies which are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Hunt Consolidated, Inc. (âHCIâ). HCI is a diversified holding company directed by Ray L. Hunt, with its major subsidiaries engaged in oil and gas exploration and production, real estate development, electric power, ranching, agriculture and private investing. For more information please visit www.huntventures.com.