UWB Leader Alereon Closes $31.5 Million Series A Financing Company Will Use Funding To Deliver UWB Chipsets to Market
January 6, 2004

Alereon, the leading Ultra Wideband (UWB) semiconductor company producing chipsets for the personal area networking (PAN) market, today announced it has received $31.5 million in the first round of its Series A financing. Alereon will use the proceeds to complete development of its UWB chipset solution, bring its product to market, secure design wins, and achieve initial revenue. The Series A round was led by Austin Ventures with participation by Pharos Capital, Centennial Ventures, Kinetic Ventures, eCentury Capital, Duchossois Technology Partners, PTV Sciences and other investors. The company expects to close on a small amount of additional funding in early 2004 to complete its Series A financing round.

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ECentury Capital Ranked In the Top 100 VC Firms by Entrepreneur Magazine In their July 2003 issue, Entrepreneur Magazine details the Top 100 VC firms that have financed early-stage companies in 2002. The list was compiled via the PriceWaterhouse Coopers NVCA Moneytree survey data. According to the article, ECentury Capital participated in two early-stage deals. Read more...

A $5.8 Million Endorsement for ProVox's Software
Nicholas Johnston, Washington Post 'Deal of the Week'
Wednesday, January 8, 2003

Despite the promise of the paperless office, Marsh Marshall, a venture capitalist at ECentury Capital Partners in McLean, notices all of the paper files still being kept by physicians.

"It's like they're stuck in a time warp," Marshall said. "At what point in time will the health care industry embrace information technology and how will they do it?"

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Etenna Seeks More Than Money With Latest Round
Nicolas Johnston, Washington Post 'Deal of the Week'
Wednesday 20th November 2002

Even with money still on hand from previous rounds of funding, Etenna Corp. plans to announce today the close of an additional $3 million in financing led by ECentury Capital Partners.

Etenna chief executive Steven Grossman said the investment will help the company on several levels. McLean-based ECentury counts among its backers technology giants Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corp., two companies that could be valuable partners or customers of Etenna's antenna business. Grossman said ECentury, with its investments in other telecommunications and wireless companies, could help Etenna develop markets for its products.

"I think they didn't need our money, but they saw the benefit in taking it," said Jim Broder, a principal of ECentury Capital who is joining the company's board of directors. "They thought we could add value beyond our dollars."

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Big Names Aid Fund
Tania Anderson, Potomac Tech Journal
August 19, 2002 Page 8

It might seem unwise to try to launch a new venture capital fund at the start of an economic downturn, but Tom Dann and his colleagues were able to raise $90 million in 2000. It helps to have names like Rothschild, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Corp., and Allied Capital behind you, as well as the federal government.

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Venture Capitalists Are Alive and, Well, Cautious
Today, Investments Often Come At Later Stages
By Nicholas Johnston
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 3, 2002; Page E05

Venture capitalists, experiencing the worst downturn in their industry in a decade, are still finding some investments worth making.

Although returns are plunging for venture capital funds that fueled the tech boom in the late 1990s, some firms have raised new money and others still are sitting on billions raised in happier times that they have yet to invest.

Reston's Updata Venture Partners finished raising money for a $67 million fund in the spring of 2001. Since then it has invested about a quarter of the fund in four companies and has already sold one of them. Still, Updata hasn't made a new investment in 14 months, even though John Burton, the firm's managing general partner, estimates that it has looked closely at about 150 companies.

But the company's wallet may open again. Burton expects to close a handful of deals in the coming months. "We are extremely busy," he said.

ECentury Capital Partners in McLean closed a $90 million fund late last year, and although the firm has made a dozen investments, it has committed only $12 million and taken four board seats, giving it ample time and money for new investments.

"A lot of the deals we're seeing tend to be a little later-stage," said Thomas Dann, one of ECentury's managing directors.

That seems to be one of the keys to making a successful deal lately. Later-stage investments in firms with experienced managers who have real products and customers win the venture capitalists' favor.

"The percentage of qualified management teams is up dramatically," Burton said. "They're working on expanding their business model instead of creating it."

Venture funds in the first quarter invested just $5.1 billion, a 53 percent drop from a year earlier, according to VentureOne Corp., an industry research firm. They raised just $2.25 billion in the first quarter, the lowest amount since 1995.

If you look at a five-year period, venture capitalists made a 35.9 percent return on their investments through the end of 2001, Thomson Financial/Venture Economics reported. But that counts the 3,135 still-surviving start-ups that were funded during the boom years of 1999 and 2000, a large percentage of which are expected to fail.

Article from the Washington Post



Software Firm CombineNet Closes $6 Million Round Two
Venture Wire, 5/27/2002. --

PITTSBURGH -- CombineNet, a developer of software that solves complex business allocation problems, said it has closed a $6 million second round of financing. New investors Apex Venture Partners and ECentury Capital Partners participated in the round, while Oak Hill Capital Partners acted as financial adviser and assisted in arranging the financing.

CombineNet said it will use the proceeds to expand the company's operations. The company has 25 employees and plans to increase staff with the new funds, according to CFO Brian Jacobson. CombiNet customers include PPG Industries, Raytheon, H.J. Heinz, Unilever, Bausch & Lomb, Procter & Gamble, and Bayer.

As a result of the round, George Middlemas, managing partner at Apex, and Marsh Marshall, managing director at ECentury, will join the CombineNet board of directors.

CombineNet, founded in April 2000, raised $1.8 million in Series A funding from Revolution Ventures and individual investors in the fall of 2000. Its ClearBox software uses mathematical algorithms and formulations in order to optimize strategic sourcing, resource allocation, and sell-side commerce systems.

Article from http://professional.venturewire.com/



Manticom takes a run at Nortel, Cisco
Potomac Tech Journal, 5/27/2002. --

Manticom Networks has its sites set on stealing business from some of the world’s most prominent information technology companies, namely Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks. The Chantilly, Va., company’s strategy amounts to a modernized version of divide and conquer.

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Armed With $7 Million, Platypus Eyes D.C. Move
Washington Post, 4/10/02. --

Platypus Technology, founded three years ago in Sydney, Australia, recently set up shop in New Hampshire. Now, after raising $7 million in venture capital funding, the company is planning to move again - possibly to the Washington area.

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Magnolia Broadband Closes $6 Million In Funding
Radio Chip Developer To Complete Design and Testing. --

Clinton, New Jersey, April 2, 2002 - Magnolia Broadband, Inc., a developer of integrated, multi-transceiver, low-power RF chips for mobile phones, has closed on a $6 million Series B round. The round was led by ECentury Capital Partners of McLean, Virginia and SCP Private Equity of Wayne, Pennsylvania. Existing investors Selway Partners and CIP Capital also participated in the round. Proceeds of the round will be used to complete customer trials of Magnolia’s flagship chipset.

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Columbia-Based Matrics Tunes In $14 Million Round
Columbia, Md. --

Columbia-based Matrics, a developer of radio frequency identification and tracking technology, said on Monday that it has raised $14 million in its second round of financing, which was co-led by Novak Biddle Venture Partners and The Carlyle Group. Other investors included Venturehouse Group, Polaris Venture Partners, The Washington Dinner Club,
ECentury Capital Partners, Allied Capital, Apgar Investments, WomenAngels.net, Capital Investors, Silver Haze Partners, Riggs Capital Partners, Frank Bonsal, Jr. and Piyush Sodha. Matrics manufacturers RFID tags -- thin, flexible smart labels containing a silicon chip. They are attached to or embedded in products, boxes and pallets and are used for tracking purposes as they travel through the supply chain, allowing managers to make real-time logistical decisions. The tags are different from others on the market because they do not require a clear line of sight to be read.

www.matricsrfid.com/news.html