InnerWorkings Secures $8.8 Million Investment from Benchmark Capital Europe and MDV
Posted by InnerWorkingsDublin, Ireland & Pleasanton, CA - April 18, 2005 - InnerWorkings today announced that it has secured $8.8 million in financing from marquee investors Benchmark Capital Europe and MDV-Mohr, Davidow Ventures. The company will use funds from this Series A round to accelerate its R&D capabilities in Ireland and expand its sales, marketing, and client services organizations in the U.S.
It is widely acknowledged that enterprises lose billions of dollars each year on failed software projects and flawed system design. In the U.S. alone, companies spend over $3 billion annually trying to solve the educational component of this problem. There is now a clear motivation within the learning industry to generate more powerful tools and methodologies to support this process. Today’s learning solutions need to engage the audience, change developer practices, as well as provide real-time code feedback. In addition, management needs to generate metrics to assess the performance and efficiency of their developer workforce.
“The dynamics of the learning industry indicate that we are at a major turning point,” said Francis McKeagney, CEO of InnerWorkings. “While the investment in corporate learning continues to grow, confidence in the effectiveness and value of existing solutions is at an all-time low. Customers are keenly aware that the education of developers simply hasn’t kept pace with the advances in software tools and technologies. We feel that now is the perfect time to introduce a completely new approach.”
“InnerWorkings is proposing a radical transformation of the way developers learn and are supported in the workplace,” said Barry Maloney of Benchmark Capital Europe. “This is, perhaps, not surprising given the pioneering role that many of Fran’s team played in the evolution of the learning industry over the past decade. The company’s structured practice methodology and tight integration with Microsoft Visual Studio are truly unique. In addition, its Inferent code-judging engine offers management real visibility into the performance of software developers and enables more powerful decision-making around the software function.”
“InnerWorkings is a company bringing the right product to the market at the right time,” said Sam Jadallah of MDV, a former executive and 12-year veteran of Microsoft. “Existing learning solutions to improve programmer performance and increase productivity simply do not deliver value to enterprises or developers. InnerWorkings has created a highly differentiated and scalable solution for software developers and their managers. I believe that InnerWorkings is uniquely positioned to be the industry leader in learning solutions that support the software function. The company’s focus on Microsoft .NET is perfectly aligned with the central role of the .NET Framework in Microsoft’s enterprise strategy.”
Over the past two years, InnerWorkings has worked closely with Microsoft to build on the company’s status as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and member of the Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program. “Developers will benefit greatly from having such an integrated learning solution for Visual Studio,” said S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corp. “The capabilities of InnerWorkings Developer are a natural complement to the powerful Visual Studio integrated development environment, and will help increase productivity for developers building applications with Visual Studio.”
InnerWorkings will use the capital from this financing round to validate the company’s enterprise learning approach and build towards its longer term aim of transforming the way developers learn and are supported in the workplace. In an industry where thought leadership and innovation are critical, InnerWorkings is ready to play its part in defining the next generation of learning solutions for software developers.
About Benchmark Capital Europe
Benchmark Capital was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs build great technology companies focused on long-term growth. Benchmark’s partners take an intensive, hands-on, team-oriented approach to venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the firm’s portfolio companies. Benchmark’s portfolio includes franchise companies such as Alphyra (the leading pan-European electronic payments provider), Betfair (the world’s largest online betting company), eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), Juniper Networks (Nasdaq: JNPR), Sulake (the “Habbo Hotel” leading online games community), and Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT). Managing more than $2.7 billion in committed venture capital, Benchmark focuses on investing in entrepreneurs with original ideas. Since setting up a fund in Europe in May 2000, Benchmark has made more than 30 investments across a variety of market sectors and geographies. The $375 million raised by Benchmark Europe II follows Benchmark’s first European fund of $500 million. For more information on Benchmark, visit its website at www.benchmark.com.
About MDV-Mohr, Davidow Ventures
MDV has built a reputation among entrepreneurs as a partner by taking a hands-on approach and working skillfully to build successful companies. MDV possesses an extended team of experts including the firm’s partners and an active network of seasoned entrepreneurs. Together they focus on early stage investments while bringing years of real-world experience to accelerate each company’s time to market and optimize its long-term success. Founded in 1983, MDV is investing its eighth fund in software, services, semiconductor, networking, energy, and life sciences companies. MDV investments include Agile; Brocade; Collabra (Netscape); Epigram (BRCM); FormFactor; Ipsilon Networks (NOK) Kalpana (CSCO); and Rambus. For more information, visit www.mdv.com.
About InnerWorkings
Founded in late 2002, InnerWorkings is a leading provider of pioneering learning and performance solutions for software developers and their managers. The company specializes in the delivery of practice-based learning solutions that address key coding techniques and enterprise application needs, thereby providing true visibility into developer performance. Inferent, the company’s real-time code judging engine, lets developers evaluate their performance and provides corrective feedback to advance the learning process. InnerWorkings’ goal is to transform the way software developers learn and are supported in the workplace, as well as enabling the accurate measurement of developer capabilities throughout an organization.
InnerWorkings’ Research and Development facility is based in Dublin, Ireland and the company maintains its corporate headquarters in Pleasanton, California. For more information about InnerWorkings and its services, visit www.innerworkings.com.
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Company Contact
Brian Finnerty
bfinnerty@innerworkings.com
+1 925 737 0600
