Leading VC Firms Recommit to Ventaso with $11 Million in Additional Funding

SAN FRANCISCO, July 7 - Ventaso, Inc., the leading provider of Customer Message Management (CMM) software solutions, announced today that it has secured $11 million in additional funding from its current investor group.

The funding was led by Carlyle Venture Partners, an affiliate of The Carlyle Group, and Sierra Ventures. Additionally, Norwest Venture Partners, Integral Capital Ventures, Focus Ventures and Octane Capital participated in this financing round.

Funds will fuel the continued expansion of Ventaso's sales and marketing activities in support of the ongoing development of the Customer Message Management market.

"We continue to believe in Ventaso," said Tim Guleri, general partner for Sierra Ventures and a Ventaso director. "The company has stood out during the current software slump by closing enterprise-wide, multi-million dollar deals with several Fortune 100 companies in the last three quarters, and entering into paid-for pilot agreements with several more high profile customers.

"The interest among prospective customers and the sales pipeline are at all-time highs, as is customer satisfaction," Guleri added.

Allan Thygesen, managing director for the Carlyle Group and a Ventaso director, also pointed to Ventaso's success, in partnership with the American Marketing Association, in advancing the thinking behind CMM as a best practice for organizations seeking to enhance marketing's role in sales effectiveness.

"When customers like American Express, Federal Express, and EDS willingly speak publicly about their CMM initiatives and the role Ventaso has played in their sales successes, it's a true testimonial to a software company that's adding business value," he said.

Ventaso President and CEO Susan Atherton called the continued support from the company's major investors a credit to the entire Ventaso team. "We continue to close deals with leading companies, and quickly see them become proponents of the CMM concept and solution," she said.

"These companies recognize that it's not what they sell, but how they sell that makes a difference in competitive markets -- so a solution that improves creation, delivery and management of customer messaging is seen as a strategic corporate application and asset," Atherton added.

About Ventaso

Founded in 1998, Ventaso (www.ventaso.com) provides software solutions, augmented by best practices consulting, geared to help Fortune 1000 companies increase their marketing and sales effectiveness.

Led by the American Marketing Association and Ventaso, the concept of CMM, through the Customer Message Management Forum, has evolved beyond software to become a movement geared to enhance marketing discipline with respect to customer-centric sales. Others prominent in the movement include the Gartner Group's Research Director Joe Galvin, and Michael Bosworth, author and creator of the Solution Selling sales process.

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