Saxena co-founded Netezza secures $15 M.
By siliconindia staff writer   |   Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 20:30 IST
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FRAMINGHAM, MA: Netezza Corporation today announced it has secured $15 million in a competitive fourth round of equity financing with the opportunity to obtain an additional $5 million as needed. Led by premier late-stage venture capital firm Meritech Capital Partners, the injection of capital also reflected strong support from Netezza’s previous investors and resulted in a more than threefold increase in the valuation of the company. Since its launch in 2000, Netezza has raised more than $68 million in venture capital. “Our decision to seek a fourth round of venture funding was driven not only by the explosive growth we’ve experienced over the past year, but also by the tremendous opportunity in the data warehousing market,” said Patrick Scannell, CFO and Treasurer of Netezza Corp. “With more and more global customers deploying the Netezza Performance Server® (NPS®) data warehouse appliance, we look forward to expanding internationally, penetrating new vertical markets and building our customer support and sales teams.” Funding from the fourth round will also enable Netezza to broaden the capabilities of its product line even further as well as build on its remarkable success from the past year. In 2004, Netezza signed substantial agreements with industry leaders, providing multiple NPS systems to companies including CNET Networks, Shoppers Drug Mart and The TJX Companies. Netezza also expanded its product line with the introduction of the 8025 model of the NPS system, which now extends the product line to an even wider range of customers. The company also reported substantial sales increases and staff growth as compared to 2003. “Netezza’s innovative technology, seasoned executive team and exceptional growth exemplify all the characteristics we look for in a late-stage investment,” said Rob Ward, managing director at Meritech Capital Partners. “Most impressive, however, is the dramatic improvement in speed and usability that Netezza offers over other solutions. The customers told us they didn’t believe Netezza’s claims until they used the product themselves.” The Netezza Performance Server system is the only data warehouse appliance built specifically to analyse terabytes of detailed data – 10 to 50 times faster than existing data warehouses, at half the cost. The NPS system stores, filters and processes terabytes of records within a single unit, analysing only the relevant information for each query. Netezza has placed the CPU power next to the data, allowing the NPS system to speed through processes that would occupy most data warehouse systems for hours or even days, thereby enabling dramatic increases in productivity across the organisation. Customers who have recognised the performance benefits of Netezza’s approach include AT&T Wireless, CNET Networks, Epsilon, Orange UK, Premier, Inc., Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation and The TJX Companies. Netezza was co-founded by Jit Saxena , a business savvy entrepreneur who was previously the founder , chairman and CEO of Applix Inc. He was also named an Ernst and Young New England Entrepreneur of the year in 2003.

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