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Unified Communications Innovator, Camrivox, secures £1.2 million to target SME market

Camrivox Ltd (Cambridge, UK), a Unified Communications innovator and developer of Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) software for the SME market, has raised £1.2 million from a consortium of investors.  The over-subscribed funding round was led by NESTA Investments and involved existing shareholders, including founding investor and chairman, Dr Phil O’Donovan, and Create Partners.  New investors included Bank of Scotland Growth Equity who invested alongside business angel members of Oxford Investment Opportunity Network (OION) under their Co-Investment Programme arrangement.

Camrivox will use the funding to develop its main product, ‘Flexor’, which provides Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) software for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications in a way that is affordable and easy to implement for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). 

Flexor allows the PC and telephone to work in unison so that applications are integrated with phone calls, thus providing a raft of productivity enhancing features to sales staff who gain automatic access to records whilst speaking to customers, can track customer enquiries and generate call reports.  To date, the majority of CTI deployments with CRM have been to large businesses and have required significant investment in infrastructure, hardware and software.

Camrivox has made CTI software easy to use and cost-effective by creating a package that can be downloaded directly from the web to the PC for the first time, enabling SMEs to benefit from the latest telephony CRM integration systems without the need for significant additional investment or training.

The Company has a range of partners to supply its software to the SME market.  Most recently, Camrivox announced that it is joining forces with SNOM Technology AG, a major German IP phone supplier, to provide a web-delivered CTI product for Salesforce users of SNOM’s IP phones.  Further applications are already in the pipeline and will be available during the first half of 2008.

Malcolm Wood, CEO of Camrivox, said: “We are delighted to have secured this new investment, which will enable us to ramp up our sales and distribution activity, secure more partnerships and build on our core technologies to deliver new products in the Unified Communications market place.  We are pleased that our existing shareholders have continued to back us by re-investing and we welcome on board NESTA, Bank of Scotland Growth Equity and the OION Network investors.  We feel sure that this mix of high net worth and institutional investors will provide support for our business over the long term.”

Camrivox is now preparing for the official launch of its software offering with SNOM, at CeBIT - one of the world’s largest ICT exhibitions scheduled to be held on 4 March in Hanover, Germany.  This launch will give SNOM’s new and existing users the opportunity to upgrade to the Flexor CTI software on their phones.

Jonathan Kestenbaum, CEO of NESTA, said: “Camrivox offer a clear proposition in the large and growing market for unified communications and we were particularly attracted by the excellent progress the Company has made building relationships with major CRM players and channel partners.  It is critical that high potential UK businesses like this have access to the kinds of support and finance they need to succeed.”

Matt Pieterse, an Investor Director and Partner at CREATE Partners, said: “We first invested in Camrivox two years ago during their seed funding round and are pleased to see how much progress the Company has made.  Camrivox’s new Flexor CTI software dramatically changes the economic equation for its customers, by delivering a new approach to traditional telephony – increasing choice and helping customers to reduce their costs without ripping out and replacing existing investments.  This additional investment, applied with the continued ingenuity and ambition of Camrivox’s management team, will see the Company expand quickly in collaboration with leading industry partners.”

The investment in Camrivox marks the first deal under the Co-Investment Programme recently launched by Bank of Scotland Growth Equity and the OION Network, which enables the Bank to match investments made by OION Network members.

Malcolm Kpedeko, Associate Director of Bank of Scotland Growth Equity, said: “We are delighted to mark the first deal under our Co-Investment Programme by investing alongside the OION Network members into such a high quality company.”

Eileen Modral, Manager of Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network (OION), said: “We congratulate Camrivox on securing the investment capital they need to expand.  The Company is a pioneer amongst CTI providers in offering an innovative CTI product that can be simply and cost-effectively delivered to the PC.  Camrivox has huge potential to build a substantial SME customer base and we will follow their progress with interest.”

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Editors Notes

Press enquiries to: Margaret Henry, Oxford Investment Opportunity Network.

Tel: +44 (0)1865 811199    E-mail: m.henry@oxin.co.uk

Photo available on request, Malcolm Wood, CEO of Camrivox, uses the Company’s innovative Flexor software, which will enable SMEs to access the latest telephony CRM integration systems.  Camrivox has secured £1.2 million to take its software into the SME marketplace.

About Camrivox

Camrivox develops Unified Communications software applications.  The first products launched by the Company provide Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) software for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications.

Camrivox is pioneering the development and delivery of Flexor, software that enhances CRM Telephony performance and at a low cost.  Traditionally, CTI software has required large investments in infrastructure, hardware and support staff. 

The Camrivox management team is led by CEO, Malcolm Wood, who has over 20 years experience in the electronics and Telecommunications industry in Europe and the USA.  This includes senior management positions at Marconi and Airtech where, as Managing Director and part of an executive team, he took the company to an AIM listing and spearheaded its international development in the US, China, Korea, and Malaysia.  He subsequently joined ADC Telecommunication where he performed a turnaround function as President of the loss-making ADC Wireless division and then ran the sales, marketing and strategy arm of WFI inc, a $300m turnover outsourcing company which, based on performance, added $200m to its market capitalization.

Camrivox was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Cambridge.

For further information: www.camrivox.com

About NESTA

NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts.  Its mission is to transform the UK’s capacity for innovation.   We do this in three main ways: by working to build a more pervasive culture of innovation in this country; by providing innovators with access to early-stage capital; and by driving forward research into innovation, with a view to influencing policy. 

For further information: www.nesta.org.uk

About Create Partners

CREATE Partners Ltd is a fund management company that is focused on providing value beyond capital. CREATE addresses the early stage funding gap between angels and mainstream venture capitalists and invests in companies focusing on emerging business opportunities that seek early international expansion. The team has significant experience in dealing with medium sized companies, including strategic reviews, flotations, fund raisings, MBOs, mergers and acquisitions.

CREATE Partners manages The Create East of England Fund, a £20m venture capital fund that has since 2003 made 41 investments across various sectors ranging from seed capital to MBO.

Since its establishment in 2000, CREATE has built a reputation for successfully implementing an innovative investment approach to meet the needs of investors seeking international diversification in specialist private equity funds. In recognition for its high quality focus on early stage investments, CREATE was awarded ‘Equity Gap Fund of the Year’ in September 2006 by a panel comprising leading UK venture capital and private equity investors.

CREATE Partners Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. CREATE is a member of the BVCA.

For more information: www.createpartners.com

About the Co-Investment Programme

On 29 January 2008, Bank of Scotland Growth Equity and Oxford Investment Opportunity Network (OION) formally launched a Co-Investment Programme that will provide a new source of funding for innovative companies.

Under the terms of the Co-Investment Programme the Bank has made available £2 million to invest during 2008 alongside investor members of OION, and its sister investment networks, Thames Valley Investment Network and Oxford Early Investments.  The Bank will typically invest from £25,000 to £250,000 per deal, with all investments being made on exactly the same terms as OION’s investor members.

About Oxford Investment Opportunity Network (OION)

Oxford Investment Opportunity Network (OION) is Europe’s most successful technology business angel network that links investors with entrepreneurs seeking business development funds from £150,000 to £2 million.

OION holds monthly meetings where selected companies from across the UK pitch their proposals to OION’s members, which include over 150 active business angels, VCTs and fund representatives.

Many of these companies are university spin-outs and OION has strong links with universities with a reputation for spinning out quality technology companies such as: Warwick, Oxford, Bristol, University College London and Imperial College London. 

OION has two successful sister networks. Thames Valley Investment Network links investors in the Reading and Thames Valley area with companies in the general technology, media and green tech sectors seeking funding from £100,000 to £750,000. Oxford Early Investments helps very stage companies raise proof of concept funding from £20,000 to £150,000. 

OION is managed by Oxford Innovation Ltd (www.oxin.co.uk), the UK’s leading operator of Innovation Centre premises for growing companies, and sponsored by Laytons, Frank B Dehn & Co, NESTA and Bank of Scotland Corporate.

For further information: www.oion.co.uk

About Bank of Scotland’s Growth Equity team

Bank of Scotland’s Growth Equity team makes direct equity investments into a variety of businesses across a range of sectors.  It makes investments directly from the Bank’s balance sheet, not from a fund.  It therefore has the flexibility to work with management teams to facilitate an exit at the right time for the business itself.

Since 2001 the team has made over 40 investments worth some £200 million. Recent investments include: Red Spider Technology, Cel-F Solar, Rocela Group, Pi Capital, Leaseway and Artimi Inc

It looks for the following criteria in potential investee companies:

• Two years’ revenue with a positive sales trend
• Exhibits above average growth
• Experienced, well-balanced management team
• Large UK or global market
• Competitive advantage period of three to four years
• Strong corporate governance
• Good exit prospects
• Equity requirement £1m and above

For further information: www.hbosplc.com