Escend Software Secures $7 Million in Series D Financing Novus Ventures Leads the Round, Joining NIF Ventures

Escend Technologies has received $7m in funding, which will be used to further penetrate the electronic components industry.

San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) October 11, 2003 -- Escend Technologies, a provider of demand chain management software for complex, distributed sales processes, today announced it has secured $7M in funding from Novus Ventures (www.novusventures.com) and NIF Ventures (www.nifusa.com), an affiliate of Daiwa Securities.

Escend will use this investment to accelerate market penetration into the electronic components industry, its initial vertical market, following successful early customer adoption and to expand product development efforts to extend functionality to further address the global requirements of the market.

Escend helps electronic components suppliers increase revenue by addressing the problem of the low rate of conversion of design wins into revenue orders. Losing the order costs electronic component suppliers millions of dollars annually in lost revenue and the Escend solution has the proven capability to solve this problem.

Traditional CRM software solutions fail to meet the specific needs of the electronic component market in managing a complex network of channel partners contracted to protect, track and secure the design win-based orders," said Bailey CEO of Escend. Our solution consistently delivers on the promise of helping our customers convert design wins into orders. That is the driving force behind our success in the marketplace and the basis for our investors confidence."

We are excited about Escend because the company is taking a leading role in the creation of the demand chain management software category, a category that we believe will be a huge growth area in the coming years said Dan Tompkins, managing partner at Novus Ventures.
In addition we are impressed with the Escend business vision and the proven capabilities of the management team to execute against this vision. This is the type of company we want to be working with."

Building the Team to Meet Growing Customer Demand

Escend Software also announced the appointment of Kenneth Lam as Vice President of Client Services and Michael Penta as Vice President of Sales.

As Vice President of Client Services, Lam will be responsible for all professional services including managing the business critical deployment of the Escend synchronization engine across all channel partners. In addition Lam will also be responsible for managing all aspects of customer support. Lam joined Escend as the Director of Professional Services in July 2001. In that role Lam was responsible for multiple product implementations with early adopter customers. Prior to Escend Lam was a Regional Director with Breakaway Solutions where he was responsible for building and deploying solutions for startups to Fortune 500. Ken began his consulting career with Accenture. Ken has a BS in Computer Science and an MBA from California State University.

As Vice President of Sales, Penta will be responsible for leading and expanding the companys global sales and business development operations. Penta joined Escend as an early stage employee and has held variety of sales and business development positions. His most recent position at Escend was Vice President of Business Development. Prior to joining Escend, Penta held numerous sales management positions at LeCroy Corporation, most recently managing its Worldwide Data Storage Business. Mike has also held sales and management positions at Nicolet Technologies, a division of ThermoSpectra Corporation, and Fabreeka International. Mike holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University and has completed the Executive Development Program and Strategies for e-Business Program at the J.J. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

ABOUT ESCEND TECHNOLOGIES
Escend Technologies (www.escend.com) was founded in 1999 by experts in the semiconductor industry, is the leading demand-chain solution provider for enterprises with complex and distributed sales. Its first vertical market is the electronic components industry, which is faced with increasingly complex sales processes now that manufacturing is outsourced to remote, low cost centers in Mexico, Eastern Europe and Asia. Escends applications produce increased visibility across a distributed process, allowing component manufacturers to see immediate value and cost reductions from automating this formerly manual process. Developed using Microsoft technologies and deployed on Windows-based servers, the Escend solution is delivered on a proven, easily supported platform ready for integration with common Microsoft products. Escend's XML/SOAP Web Services engine integrates with existing enterprise solutions and facilitates extended enterprise collaboration.