Gabriel News
Persistent Systems secures $18.8 Million in VC Funding led by Norewest Venture Partners & Gabriel Venture Partners
Promod Haque and Navin Chaddha Join Persistent’s Board of Directors
Pune, India, December 7th, 2005 -- Persistent Systems, a leading Outsourced Software Product Development company, announced today that it has closed a round of financing bringing total capital investment to $18.8 million. Persistent’s funding comes from two leading venture capital firms, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and Gabriel Venture Partners. NVP invested $13.8 million in this round, and Gabriel Venture Partners invested $5 million.
Promod Haque, Managing Partner of NVP, and Navin Chaddha, General Partner of Gabriel Venture Partnrs, have joined the Persistent board of directors.
The investment comes at a time when Persistent has been on a high expansion trajectory with both indirect and organic growth initiatives. Growing at a 70 % CAGR over the past three years, Persistent has seen robust growth in its stature as a leading Outsourced Software Product Development company with clients ranging from start-up companies to Fortune 500 corporations.
Dr. Anand Deshpande, Chairman & Managing Director of Persistent Systems, said that “Persistent has charted aggressive growth plans in the coming year, and it is desirable that we partner with the leading and most established venture firms that will bring world class business process, offer valuable experience at the board level and provide top class exposure for Persistent in the most developed market-- the US. This will elevate Persistent to the next level, and the company will further augment its presence in the US and aggressively look at accelerating its growth. We have been working with Navin for more than a year as a trusted partner and were delighted when he brought Promod to co-lead the investment with him.”
Expressing his views on this investment in Persistent Systems, Promod Haque stated that "Persistent is a profitable company with superior technology, significant customer traction and a highly experienced management team – a combination that is extremely rare to find, and an investment opportunity NVP couldn’t let go. The company has already proven itself in the rapidly growing Outsourced Software Product Development area, and this infusion of capital will further accelerate Persistent’s ability to access this global market opportunity. Several of NVP’s portfolio companies have already been using Persistent Systems’ development services for quite some time and are extremely satisfied with the quality of people and services rendered. One of the critical reasons that NVP agreed to make this investment is based on the premise that several more of NVP’s current and future portfolio companies could partner with Persistent to accelerate their product development schedules and achieve cost effectiveness.”
Outlining Gabriel’s rationale for investment in Persistent Systems, Navin Chaddha explained, “The Indian Offshore Software Product Development space is expected to touch the $8 billion mark by 2008 according to NASSCOM-McKinsey report. To meet the market demands of such scale, a company needs to have a stellar management team, strong employee base with distinct engineering skills, scaleable operations, experience in shipping products and sharp business direction. Persistent shows remarkable promise in all these areas and has a diversified customer base of over 150 customers along with experience in shipping more than 700 product releases and over 2300 employees today (80% with Computer Science degrees). The momentum is with Persistent, and we have come in at the right time.”
About Persistent Systems
Persistent Systems (www.persistentsys.com) pioneered the offshore centric software product development model fifteen years ago, and has since established an impeccable delivery record with over 150 satisfied customers worldwide. Persistent is one of the few companies that focuses exclusively on Software Product Development and over the years has developed processes and capabilities to service customers ranging from Fortune 500 companies to companies that are in the start-up phase.
Today, Persistent is recognized as a leader in Outsourced Product Development, offering the most comprehensive range of services—from Concept and Development to Support and Maintenance—with a view to help its customers increase efficiency, shrink time to market, reduce costs and leverage cutting edge skills. Persistent has been ranked as the 11th fastest growing Indian company in the Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2004 report of Deloitte and has been classified as an “Inventor” by Forrester Research.
About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 44 years. NVP focuses on investments in information technology including: semiconductor and components, systems, software, services and consumer/Internet technologies. The firm currently manages more than $1.8 billion in venture capital out of its office in Palo Alto, California, USA. Managing Partner Promod Haque has been ranked as a top 10 dealmaker on the annual Forbes Midas List for the past three years. In 2004, Forbes named him as the #1 venture capitalist based on performance over the last decade.
NVP has funded over 350 companies since inception. Recent NVP transactions include Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), Resonext Communications (acquired by RF Micro Devices), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance) and Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola). NVP has also funded such market leaders as Actel Corporation, Brocade Communications, Cerent (acquired by Cisco Systems), Documentum, Extreme Networks, Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), PeopleSoft and Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM). Additional information on Norwest Venture Partners is available at www.nvp.com.
About Gabriel Venture Partners®
Gabriel Venture Partners is a hands-on, cross-border venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley and India, managing over $260 Million. Gabriel’s investment team consists of seasoned technology entrepreneurs and industry executives, each with international operating experience and strong domain expertise. Gabriel’s unique cross-border capabilities across the US, India, and Asia-Pacific greatly enhances the effectiveness of companies in need of resources and customers within these regions. Gabriel actively partners with entrepreneurs to build the market leaders of tomorrow in technology and technology-enabled businesses. Representative investments include Placeware (acquired by Microsoft), NetScaler (acquired by Citrix), and Iridigm (acquired by Qualcomm), as well as direct India investment including Allsec (IPO), IL&FS Investsmart (IPO), Provogue (IPO), Persistent Systems and Tejas Networks. For more information, please visit: http://www.GabrielVP.com.
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