RISKCLICK RECEIVES $8.2 MILLION IN THIRD ROUND FUNDING FROM ADVENT VENTURE PARTNERS, BA CAPITAL PARTNERS EUROPE, AMADEUS CAPITAL PARTNERS AND FRANK BONSAL, JR.
Company Appoints New Executives to Build New BPM Applications, Accelerate Growth
NEW YORK, NY – May 23, 2005
Riskclick, a leader in Business Process Management (BPM) solutions for the insurance industry, announced today that it has received $8.2 million in growth stage funding from Advent Venture Partners and the company's founding investors, BA Capital Partners Europe and Amadeus Capital Partners. The investment round is also supported by private investor and industry veteran Frank Bonsal, Jr.
Adopting Business Process Management has the potential to benefit insurers in many different ways,Ó said Riskclick CEO James DeSocio. Industry probes by Spitzer, proposed legislation to streamline product and agent licensing, and increasing customer pressure have raised concern among senior management. This latest round of funding enables us to expand our reach across the market in an effort to provide solutions that will meet the insurance industrious growing demand for consistent and profitable underwriting."
Providing BPM software and services that streamline, structure, and automate business processes for the insurance industry, Riskclick will use the funding to support the growth and acceleration of product development in a focused effort to enhance its position as the leading provider of BPM applications to the insurance industry. Riskclick underwriting solution, Riskclick Underwriting, is a comprehensive, exception-based underwriting system for new business submissions, endorsements, and renewals across personal, commercial, and specialty lines of business. Additional funding proceeds will also be used to expand the companions sales and marketing efforts.
ÒBPM is an essential component in the technology strategy for an insurance company,Ó said Nick Teasdale, general partner at Advent Venture Partners. Our view is that BPM will be a core requirement for most insurers to support supplier collaboration, customer service, profitable new business and improved risk management. Riskclick presented us with a rare opportunity to invest in a company that is changing the landscape of how the insurance industry conducts busines.sÓ
A recent Gartner report entitled, Oho Insurance Can Benefit from Business Process Management,Ó stated that using BPM for automation, exception handling, rules implementation and process re-engineering can deliver many benefits to an insurer. The report also states, ÒBPM can be applied to numerous insurance processes and lines of business, and its potential should not be limited to high-volume, low-value transactions. The benefits of using BPM to automate processes with a high manual content, for example, should be higher productivity, lower costs and greater consistency. Exceptions that cannot be dealt with automatically are re-routed and assigned to insurance staff for manual handling.Ó1
Since DeSocio joined Riskclick in June 2004, he has been building a new senior management team to position Riskclick for accelerated growth. The four newest executive appointments to the senior management team have been made over the past few months. Michael Melisi, former vice president of sales in Lawson Software financial services vertical team, was appointed vice president of Sales. Paulo Kaiser, former vice president of Operations at Gist Communications, has become Riskclick vice president of Development and Operations. Ross Rosen, formerly director of Product Management for Kana Communications, serves as vice president of Marketing. Adam Sandler, with Riskclick since inception, has been promoted to vice president of Professional Services.
About Advent Venture Partners
Advent Venture Partners, based in London, was founded in 1981 and is one of the most experienced technology venture capital firms in the UK. Advent specializes in information and communications technology (software, hardware, telecommunications, electronics and photonics) and life science (biopharmaceuticals, platform technologies and medical devices) investments in Europe and the US.
With a team of 14 investment executives, Advent generally invests up to £10 million ($20m) per company and is focused on helping to develop growth stage businesses. Advent Venture Partners has funds under management of over £500 million (US$950m). For more information, visit www.adventventures.com or contact Nick Teasdale, Advent Venture Partners on +44 (0)20 7932 2100.
About Amadeus Capital Partners
Amadeus (www.amadeuscapital.com) invests venture capital in new technologies from offices in London and Cambridge, UK. Since its inception in 1997, Amadeus has backed over 50 companies in the UK and continental Europe, covering computer hardware and software, mobile and fixed communications technologies and medical technologies.
Investments include Cambridge Silicon Radio, producing single chip bluetooth radios for short range connections and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2004, Optos, a manufacturer of laser retinal scanners and number one in 2003Õs Tech Track 100, Cambridge Broadband, developing technologies for wireless broadband networks in countries with poor infrastructure and number one in 2004Õs Tech Track 100, Valista, an electronic payments company, Solexa, developing ultra high speed gene sequencing machines and AePONA, a developer of standards-based software gateways for the telecoms industry. Successful realizations from the Amadeus portfolio include Entropic, bought by Microsoft and Element-14, bought by Broadcom Corporation.
About BA Capital Partners
Europe BA Capital Partners Europe (BACPE) is a European private equity partnership managing over Û1.1 billion of private equity capital as part of Bank of America's $9.2 billion global Principal Investing group. BACPE employs fifteen investment professionals with offices in London, Paris and Milan and since 1996 has made direct investments in more than 20 companies across Europe, helping them realize their long-term strategic and financial goals by providing a strong equity foundation. BACPE aims to bring European companies the benefits of an independent private equity firm, offering flexibility, local presence and responsiveness - all backed by the resources of one of the world's largest banks. BACPE works with high quality management teams in the buyout of industry leading growth companies operating in the following broad industry sectors: industrial growth, business services, and consumer products and services. For more information, visit www.bacpeurope.com or contact Stuart Miners, BA Capital Partners Europe on +44 (0)20 7174 5932.
About Frank Bonsal, Jr.
Frank A. Bonsal, Jr. is co-founder of New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the country's largest venture capital firms, and a director of Red Abbey Venture Partners. He has also been a key investor and advisor in a number of venture capital firms during the past 10 years.
About Riskclick
Riskclick provides Business Process Management (BPM) solutions for the insurance industry. Headquartered in New York with operations in London, Riskclick provides users in 43 countries with solutions that manage mission-critical insurance processes.
Riskclick underwriting solution, Riskclick Underwriting, is a comprehensive exception-based underwriting system for new business submissions, endorsements, and renewals across personal, commercial, and specialty lines of business. For additional information, visit the company Web site at www.riskclick.com.
Media Contacts
Carol Romeo
CBK Group
(201) 556-9404, ext. 110
cromeo@cbkgroup.com.
1 ‘How Insurance Can Benefit From Business Process Management’, Gartner (March 2005) by Peter
Redshaw and Kimberly Harris-Ferrante (ID Number: G00126634) |
