Visitar Inc. Receives $2.6 Million in Funding: Company Revolutionizes Customer Interaction Management for Small and Mid-Sized BusinessesThe Aurora Funds leads first-round funding for first company to deliver communications enabled business applications as a serviceRaleigh, NC, March 7, 2006 – Visitar, an innovative provider of communications enabled business applications (see related release, "Visitar Introduces 360° Care viaVisitar", dated March 7, 2006), announced today it has secured $2.6 million in first-round funding. The Aurora Funds, Inc., one of the leading seed and early stage venture capital firms in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic, was the lead investor. By leveraging open source technology, a Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model, and experience gained implementing contact centers and trading systems for some of the largest companies in the world, Visitar is able to provide highly reliable, easily managed communications enabled business applications at a fraction of the cost of comparable alternatives that require products from multiple vendors, specialized on-premise equipment, extensive integration, and costly ongoing maintenance and support. The solutions enable customers to initiate and manage interactions through multiple channels (phone, chat, email) from within complete relationship management applications. This will improve customer loyalty and value while reducing costs and increasing employee satisfaction and efficiency. The business and operational benefits make Visitar products an ideal solution for small and mid-sized businesses in service industries, where frequent customer interaction via the phone and other communication channels is business critical. "This funding will help us achieve our goal to enable small and medium-sized companies to deliver world class customer care at a total cost of ownership that just makes sense," said Visitar CEO Peter Licata. "Customer interactions are inherently multi-channel. Our solutions empower customers to tightly integrate interactions that occur on the phone and other communication channels directly into their business applications with no specialized on premises equipment, integration, or extra work." Led by a team of proven industry veterans, Visitar is redefining the market for customer interaction solutions, enabling small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) to deploy solutions that in the past simply were unaffordable to license, deploy and manage. Visitar's executive team brings significant experience in leading successful businesses, including start-up ventures and entrenched market leaders, to a previously unserved market. The core team includes Peter Licata, CEO; Janet Holt, COO; George Sullivan, CTO; and Hank Barnes, vice president of marketing. Visitar's solutions combine the functionality of traditional business applications, like CRM, with advanced interaction technologies, like telephony softswitching, to allow both direct and indirect users of the applications to interact with each other across multiple communications channels (voice, web, instant message, email, etc.) while working within the context of the existing application. The solutions use an innovative, patent pending, business rule driven configuration approach that enables non-technical business managers to configure and adjust the system simply by answering questions about their business. "The experience of Visitar's leadership team, combined with a product that addresses a clear need in the largest segment of U.S. businesses, made it a clear choice for our first investment in Aurora Ventures V, our fifth venture fund," said Scott Albert, managing general partner, The Aurora Funds, Inc. "Visitar's ability to deliver a solution to a market that is sorely in need of it will transform how small and mid-sized businesses compete; this is an A-plus product from and an A-plus company." Visitar's "viaVisitar" branded solutions will be distributed exclusively by a network of strategically selected channel partners. Channel partners will receive extensive sales and marketing tools, an online knowledge base, and dedicated channel support teams. Visitar's differentiated solutions will enable channel partners to generate recurring revenue while complementing existing solution and service capabilities. About The Aurora FundsFounded in 1994, The Aurora Funds is a venture capital firm that provides capital and strategic help to entrepreneurs with early stage life sciences and information technology companies in the Southeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. The firm has more than $200 million of total capital under management and is currently investing out of its fifth fund. The firm has the capacity to invest between $4 million and $7 million throughout the life cycle of an investment. More information is available at www.aurorafunds.com. About VisitarVisitar provides innovative customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation (SFA) solutions that link rich telephony capabilities with business applications to improve efficiency and enhance customer and employee experience. Delivered as a service, the solutions are affordable for small and mid-sized businesses and do not introduce any IT management burden. Visitar's "360° Care viaVisitar" solutions eliminate complexity by supporting any web browser and telephone system and also simplify ongoing system management through a business-friendly, rules-driven configuration capability. Visitar solutions are delivered to customers via a network of business partners that are the trusted providers of networking, phone or application capabilities to the small and mid-sized businesses market. For more information, including a complete overview of the capabilities, functionality, and benefits of the Visitar solution, visit www.visitar.com. |