Investment in Another Company
NewMedia SPARK PLC
26 October 2000
NewMedia SPARK invests £1m in leading analytical software company
IntelligentApps
NewMedia SPARK Plc, Europe's leading quoted early stage technology investment
company, today announces that it has invested £1,000,000 in IntelligentApps
Holdings Ltd, a leading operator in the dynamic business analytics market.
The investment forms part of a £1.8million round of funding from NewMedia
SPARK, and private individuals including Geoff Squire, founding Managing
Director of Oracle UK and later the Executive Vice President for the Oracle
Corporation.
Designed exclusively around the new Microsoft.net platform which includes
Office 2000 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000, IntelligentApps has developed
software that empowers business end users, giving them the ability to design,
create and deploy powerful, business specific analytical applications in
minutes and without any IT or coding knowledge.
The majority of business users worldwide use Microsoft Excel for their
Management Reporting. This is testified by the 120 million Microsoft Office
users worldwide. Whilst Excel provides part of a solution, it ultimately has
limited scalability and functionality. At the other end of the spectrum,
extremely powerful OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) databases allow the end
user to manipulate complex data relationships, but are expensive and complex
to use. IntelligentApps' products totally bridge this divide by creating OLAP
multidimensional databases from within the spreadsheet environment, without
the necessity for IT involvement or specialized consultancy.
IntelligentApps Holdings Ltd also wholly owns Knosys (UK) Ltd, which has
exclusive distribution rights in the UK to all Knosys Inc.'s products
including ProClarityTM, the industry leading front-end analytical application
platform. Knosys UK's customers include Nationwide Building Society, The Body
Shop, Kerry Group, RMC Group, Siemens Standard Drives, Buy.com, Avaya
Communications, L'Oreal and Royal & Sun Alliance.
IntelligentApps Holdings Ltd was founded by Paul Martin and Nico Kichenbrand,
who previously worked together at Gentia Inc., a NASDAQ listed pioneer in OLAP
technology. Tony Fox, former Director of E-Commerce at Kingfisher plc, is a
Non-Executive Director of the company.
Commenting on the investment, Michael Whitaker, CEO of NewMedia SPARK said:
'We are delighted to lead this first investment round in IntelligentApps. The
Company has a strong management team and is developing a unique set of
business support tools that are applicable to all industries and sectors, and
that address a very substantial potential market. This investment further adds
to our relatively heavy involvement in the core technology/infrastructure/
software areas, which are areas where we continue to see attractive investment
returns.'
Paul Martin, CEO of IntelligentApps.com and Knosys (UK) Limited said:
'We are pleased to have secured first round funding from such a high calibre
early stage investor as NewMedia SPARK. We believe we have the products and
associated user benefits that will revolutionize the way businesses conduct
their management analysis and have the potential to redefine the $4bn OLAP and
Analytical software market. CRM, Product Profitability, Sales Analysis and
e-commerce analytics are all areas positively affected by our
IntelligentDashboard range of products. With the assistance of the SPARK team,
we will develop a robust business which will be well positioned to take
advantage of this substantial market opportunity.'
For further information, please contact:
Michael Whitaker/Fenella Copas
NewMedia SPARK
020 7851 7600
Tim Anderson/Isabel Petre
Buchanan Communications
020 7466 5000
Paul Martin
IntelligentApps
07768 876525
NewMedia SPARK
NewMedia SPARK Plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative
Investment Market. SPARK is building a portfolio of investments in
early-stage companies in Europe and India. Based principally in London and
Stockholm, SPARK has one of the largest and most experienced teams in Europe,
with skills ranging from investment banking to active involvement in the
formation and running of new media companies. The portfolio currently
comprising 48 investments, spanning the following sectors - core technology/
infrastructure/software; interactive digital TV; wireless; content; B2B and
B2C. SPARK has invested approximately £132m to date. For further information
visit www.newmediaspark.com.
IntelligentApps Holdings Ltd
IntelligentApps.com and Knosys (UK) Ltd are wholly owned subsidiaries of
IntelligentApps Holdings Ltd. IntelligentApps.com's mission is to provide
analytical applications at the lowest possible cost. Knosys (UK) Ltd holds
exclusive rights in the UK to all Knosys Inc products including ProClarity,
the industry leading front-end analytical platform. Knosys UK's mission is to
provide analytical software to enable business users to visualise their
business using trusted office software such as Internet Explorer, Microsoft
Outlook, Excel or Powerpoint. For further information see
www.intelligentapps.com