Investment In Vocalex

Interregnum PLC 4 December 2000 INTERREGNUM PLC £1 Million Investment in Vocalex Group Inc. Interregnum plc ('Interregnum'), the IT investment and advisory company, today announces its ninth investment since flotation on the Alternative Investment Market in March 2000. It has provided £1 million in equity in third round funding to Vocalex Group Inc. ('Vocalex'), a speech recognition software company. Vocalex produces context lexicons and voice enabling tools that enhance speech recognition together with user interface software, particularly focusing on the healthcare, insurance and government sectors. It provides speech-enabled technologies to organisations in the UK and North America including several medical centres, insurance companies and insurance IT providers in the US. Vocalex also has strategic partnerships with companies including Philips Speech Processing, a business unit of Philips Electronics NV, and it has recently announced partnerships with Healthcare Technologies Inc., a leading US medical transcription software company, and WAM!NET Inc., a leading provider of business-to-business network, data storage, application and hosting services, to provide speech enabled services to the US medical market. The Group is headquartered in Ohio, USA and consists of two wholly owned subsidiaries, Vocalex Inc. (in Ohio, USA) and Mancom Technologies Ltd. (in Sheffield, UK). The funding will be used to enhance the global sales and marketing operations at Vocalex. Interregnum has worked with Vocalex since June 1997 and post third round funding, owns 23% of the company in equity and holds options of 4% of the issued share capital. Vocalex had previously attracted funding in excess of £1 million from NCIC Capital Fund, May Davis Group and private investors. Commenting on the investment, Andrew De Abreu, Associate Director at Interregnum plc, said: 'Interregnum has worked with Vocalex since 1997 to successfully position the company as a USA market leader in the provision of speech recognition solutions to key sectors of healthcare and insurance. 'We are excited about the growth potential at Vocalex and look forward to continuing to work with the management team.' Peter Barron, Chairman and CEO of Vocalex, added: 'Vocalex's software is ideally suited to markets such as healthcare, insurance and government, where significant cost savings and productivity gains can be achieved through the use of speech enabled applications. 'The combination of our new products and tool sets with the advanced core speech recognition technology from Philips gives us a significant competitive edge in the market. The investment by Interregnum will allow us to build additional development and sales resources and to continue expanding the number and depth of our customer base.' For further information please contact: Andrew De Abreu, Associate Director Interregnum plc Tel: 020 7494 3080 Paul Downes/Vanessa Maydon Merlin Financial Tel: 020 7606 1244 NOTES TO EDITORS Interregnum plc - Interregnum plc ('Interregnum') is an IT investment and advisory company. It works with high potential IT entrepreneurs to develop, resource and implement aggressive, marketing-led, value building strategies and to 'transform technology into wealth'. - It provides both intellectual and financial capital to companies from conception to exit including: - Venture Marketing: working as non-executive directors with IT companies to develop, fund and implement aggressive business strategies; - Research & Consulting: working with innovators and investors on specific projects where the critical analysis or development of strategies is involved; - Transactions: advising on mergers and acquisitions, principally focusing on turn-arounds and roll-ups; - Venture Capital: co-investing with institutional and private investors. Interregnum is also raising a £75 million venture capital fund. - Interregnum - (www.interregnum.com) is headquartered in London with an office in San Francisco, USA, and associates in Silicon Valley and New York. The company currently employs 26 people. - It currently has a portfolio of 30 IT and IT-related investments with holdings principally in hardware, software, services and internet infrastructure businesses. - Its recent investments include: - Respond: £2 million in a CRM software and services vendor - Nanomagnetics: £500,000 in an information storage materials company - Computerwire: £250,000 in an online IT intelligence researcher and publisher - on board info: £950,000 in software and e-commerce e-calendar company - Mediasurface: £270,000 in a web content management company - Datapoint: £3.9 million in a contact centre consultancy and services company - Synaxia: £67,000 in a company that develops next generation storage management products - Interregnum floated on the Alternative Investment Market ('AIM') in March 2000. At 1 December 2000, it is capitalised at £67.3 million. NCIC - The National Center for Industrial Competitiveness ('NCIC') provides debt and equity financing for early stage technology companies.
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